TFA You Caught My Optics: The Wait
by Dragon with a Shotgun
Summary: Fernblade now lives with the Autobots in Detroit. How will she handle her new life on Earth? She will meet new challenges, and new foes. But something unexpected happens. It's a frightening journey for her and Optimus, but what happens next will bring the Autobots closer together than ever before. Now they have more to protect, than just the Earth and Detroit...
1. Chapter 1

**You Caught My Optics Part Two**

By

Dragon with a Shotgun

**Hey! This time, we are going to see Fernblade in action here! And you better thank AllSpark Princess for me continuing this. She made me think of a Part Two in this story. Thanks AllSpark! Oh, and yes, if you find my typing skills different in this one, such as my terms of certain people such as Prowl being called a Ninjabot, instead it's going to be ninja-bot. Ok, hope you enjoy!**

**Normal Speech: **"Normal Quotes"

**Thoughts and Passed memories: **_Italicized_

**Com-Link: **_"Italicized Quotes"_

**Chapter One**

Two weeks had passed since Fernblade's news of staying on Earth came from Ultra Magnus, which was a few days after Sentinel went back to Cybertron. Ultra Magnus said it was fine, and that as long as she kept in touch with him and the Elite Guard about the conditions of Optimus's team and Earth, she could live on Earth for as long as she wanted. Sentinel, on the other hand, wasn't as willing to let her go.

But she had grown accustomed to Earth's ways, the humans' ways of life, and the other organics that lived on the planet. It was all very new to her. She remembered when All Cybertronians thought that organics could spit acid and kill them. Now she thought it was the silliest thing she'd ever heard of. She'd also grown used to the way the team acted around their home and in emergencies. Optimus wasn't as panicked as Sentinel was when something had gone wrong. His teammates worked together as a team instead of just a work unit.

The first thing that she'd learned though was road laws and what signs and traffic lights meant. That was relieving for Captain Fanzone. He gave her some compliments about it, saying how he was glad that he wouldn't have to chase her down anymore. But, on the other hand, she was the law now, too. She had created a hologram for her motorcycle mode so that when she was on the road, she wouldn't draw attention to herself.

Today she was training with the team. They hadn't gotten a call in a while, at least for a few days. So, before they got rusty on their fighting skills, they trained on each other in the parking lot.

"Alright, who's going first and who are they against?" Optimus asked, putting his hands on his sides.

Bumblebee sprang up from his spot on the concrete. "I'm first!"

Optimus rolled his optics, knowing all too well that the yellow bot was going to volunteer first. Bumblebee was one for action, and games. But, he knew that many times that got the best of the younger mech… actually, more than many times. ALL the time, in fact.

The Prime nodded at the yellow mech in acceptance. Bumblebee grinned and crossed his arms in a dramatic thinking pose as he gazed at his choices of opponents. He could Pick Bulkhead… he was slower, and was less accurate with his shots. The yellow bot could easily take him! But maybe it would be too easy… But what about Prowl? He might have had all his voodoo ninja stuff going on and all, but Bumblebee was a lot faster than him, and in his opinion, fought more fairly then the ninja-bot. Prowl used these hologram decoys to distract his opponents so he could attack them from behind. So, that was out of the options.

Okay, what about Ratchet? He had those magnetic thingies that could lift him up off the ground and render him helpless. But he could still zap him with his electricity bolts. But, fighting an old bot like Ratchet wouldn't be near as fun. With that bot out of the equation, maybe Optimus was a good opponent? But he was way bigger, and even though the challenge was tempting, he didn't want to start off big. Sari was too small, so not her. So, that left one more opponent.

Fernblade. She was swift and light-footed. But, she had dead point accuracy. But, she was a better choice than the others though.

She seemed to guess his choice, and flashed him an evil grin. "Bring it."

Bumblebee laughed, giving her his own challenging grin. "Oh, I will."

She turned on her heel and strolled away, making her way to the other side of the lot. Bumblebee huffed and turned to walk to the opposite side of the lot himself. This was going to be odd. He had never fought a femme before in this way, and he wondered how he would fight her. If he got close to her in hand-to-hand combat, where should he grab her without offending her? He for sure didn't want to make Optimus mad, so he considered his fighting choices.

The others stood and watched as the two fighters took their places across from each other in the lot. Prowl crossed his arms, secretly putting a bet that Bumblebee was about to get his aft kicked. He actually hoped he did. A few days before that the yellow bot had pulled a prank on him by pouring clear soap on the floor in the living room. When Prowl had entered the room on his way to his courters, he slipped in the soap and almost knocked himself out. He'd been meaning to get back at that bot ever since, but maybe he wouldn't have to. Fernblade could do the job for him.

Bulkhead sat down on an old car that had been abandoned in the lot. Sari sat on his knee with a large smile as she gazed at the two bots. Ratchet and Optimus looked at each other, and then smiled as they stood side-by-side. Optimus hoped that this would be a smooth, clean, fair fight. He'd hat to see Fernblade hurt on accident. Even though Bumblebee was indeed smaller, he could still pack a punch. But at that moment, everybody seemed to be amused that the yellow bot was interested in fighting a femme, remembering what had happened when they had encountered Blackarachnia for the first time.

Bumblebee took a deep breath as he gazed across the lot at Fernblade. She seemed calm and sure, almost too sure. He began to feel nervous, knowing that a lot of femmes had boundaries. If a mech accidently touched a femme in a wrong way, or hurt her physically, she could go all wildcat on them. He had a friend from Cybertron that had been beaten up by a femme that had trained in the warrior fighting classes. He'd gotten a broken leg, loosened wires from her grabbing a pressure point in his neck, and had a hard time walking around for a few weeks.

Shrugging off the odd feeling, the yellow bot watched as the femme brought her hands up and cracked her knuckles. He clenched his own fists, feeling them pop. He rolled his shoulders, and stretched his arms and legs before shaking himself and jumping on his toes.

Fernblade smiled smoothly. She'd dealt with mechs like this before. They had quick minds, but didn't know anything about their opponent's skills unless they'd known them for a long time. But, this should be interesting; to fight someone she'd only known for a short amount of time. She sighed, rolling her neck and shrugging her shoulders. Then she let her optics fall on Bumblebee.

They studied each other for a while, waiting for the signal to start. When Optimus's siren blared, then was cut off, they took cautious steps forward. They kept their optics locked on each other's, trying to predict what their first move was going to be. Suddenly Bumblebee's electric stinger's transformed from his hands, buzzing as he shot a bolt at her. She jumped out of the way smoothly, but almost lost her footing. When another bolt was shot at her, she transformed her hands into blades, and put her arms up in defense.

When she opened her optics, she saw her blades buzzing with electricity. Her blades had absorbed the shock and held the electricity within her hands. She smiled when it didn't hurt. She looked above Bumblebee and saw an overhanging wire, and came up with an idea. She sprang to her feet and transformed her hands back. They didn't hurt at all, and yellow sparks covered them. She blinked at them for a moment, and touched a light pole that was by her. Sparks sizzled and suddenly the light, that hadn't worked for years, came on brightly. She smiled, and turned to Bumblebee, who was staring at her in surprise, looking at his stingers and back at her in confusion.

Fernblade grinned and suddenly sprinted forward. Bumblebee gasped, and shot another bolt at her, only for her to transform her hand into her blade, catch the bolt, and change her hand back. He took jump-steps backwards, and sprinted forward. He tensed his body, and was about to kick her in the legs. But, she jumped up into the air right in front of him. He skidded to a halt and looked up, and watched as she grabbed a down power line that hung on the electric pole. She landed behind him, catching him off-guard by wrapping the wire around his feet faster than lightening. Then she transformed her hands back, and grabbed the wire.

"YEOW!" Bumblebee yelped when suddenly his body was shocked from the electricity that drained from her hands, into the wire around his feet, and into his systems. He fell to his knees, dizzy and the world blurry. Suddenly Optimus's siren blared on again, signaling that the match was over.

"Fern wins!" Ratchet announced, smiling as Bumblebee tried to get up, but having fallen back onto his rear.

Remembering that the wire still was tied around his ankles, he grumbled and fumbled to untie it. Finally after a few annoying attempts, the wire loosened and he stood up, shaking it off before shaking his head.

Fernblade put a hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"

He blinked for a few seconds, and then gave her a thumbs up. "Yeah, but how'd you do that?"

She shrugged, a cross between a humored smile and a confused frown forming on her face. "I'm not even sure how I did that."

Bumblebee laughed. They walked back to the others, and earned some amused smiles.

"Nice, Fern!" Sari congratulated, giving the femme a high-five.

Bulkhead laughed. "Yeah, its funny how the bot that shot the electric bolts, got a shock out of it more than the receiver."

Bumblebee groaned, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Jeez, don't rub it in! How should I have known that that would've happened?"

Optimus crossed his arms. "You shouldn't. You have to be prepared for anything your opponent does." He stated, and then smiled at Fernblade. "That also means if they use your own weapons to their advantage."

She crossed her arms, forming a small smile. Optimus swung an arm around her shoulders, and looked at the others.

"Okay, who's next?"

Bumblebee waved a hand in the air. "I'm going to go inside to wash this black off of me." He then touched his head, and yelped, having received a shock from the electricity still running through his body. "Ow!"

Ratchet glared after him. "Don't use water."

"I won't, I won't." Bumblebee promised as he walked off, rolling his optics.

Fernblade smiled oddly as he left, and worried that she had actually hurt him. But with the way he walked in a dizzily way, it looked like he was just stunned. So, she didn't worry about it.

She watched as prowl and Bulkhead raised their hands to go next. She smiled as Prowl smiled invisibly at her. She and Prowl had also gotten very close over the last few days. They even secretly considered each other as almost like siblings. The others didn't really notice, thankfully. Prowl had wanted to keep it quiet. He said that it'd make him feel odd to know that they knew they were that close. The others had considered him as a quiet, serious, ninja-bot that loved nature. But, he actually grew on Fernblade, and they had talked to each other about things that he couldn't talk to the others about. She was like a sister that joked with him in one way, but understood him in another. She could see certain emotions that he usually tried to keep hidden, which sometimes surprised him.

She nodded at him. He nodded back with a small smile. Ratchet looked at them back and forth for a moment, and then shrugged.

Prowl turned away and made his way in the direction that Fernblade had when she and Bumblebee had started out. Neither had made a blow besides the electric shock she gave him, so she hoped that this would be more of a show than her and Bumblebee's fight. Well, it wasn't exactly a fight.

Bulkhead slowly went to the opposite side of the lot and got into a fighting stance. Prowl stood motionless at the other end.

Fernblade felt the Prime's arm gently tighten around her shoulders, and raised a hand and placed it on it. She leaned her head against his chest as they watched at the two bots getting ready. When they settled, Optimus looked down at her.

"You might want to cover your audios."

She did as told, and placed both of her hands on the side her head. Although it was muffled, she could hear his loud siren going off once to signal the two to start their fight. She uncovered her audios and let him wrap his arm around her shoulders again. She watched as they slowly started to walk toward each other. She looked at Ratchet and Sari, and then frowned.

"Where's Jazz?"

"I think he's still inside." Optimus replied, looking over at the two remaining.

Fernblade stared for a moment. She hadn't seen Jazz that morning, and hadn't heard from him. It wasn't normal for him to not be with them. She hummed to herself, and then tried to wriggle from Optimus's arm.

"I'm going to check to see if he's inside." She then giggled when he kept his grip on her. He smiled at her, playfully keeping her close to him and preventing her from moving. She rolled her optics and hugged him.

Satisfied, he chuckled and nodded. He then turned his head back to Prowl and Bulkhead. Fernblade strolled away from the small group and toward the warehouse. She hoped that he was alright. It was odd not to have him around making jokes and making them laugh. Jazz was also like Fernblade's brother. He'd be there when she had a bad moment or was suddenly depressed about something, comforting her and making sure she was alright. She'd joke with each other, playing pranks and acting like sparklings at times.

She stepped through the doorway, almost ramming into Bumblebee on the way in.

"Bee, you cleaned up?"

He nodded, brushing some black soot off of his shoulder. "Yep, I'm clean."

"Ready for another showdown with me?" she asked, grinning.

He put his hands up in a shoving motion. "Nah, I'm good. That was quite a… shock you gave me."

Fernblade laughed and crossed her arms, smiling at him. "Well, Prowl and Bulk are in the field right now."

His optics grew wide. "Ah, man! I need to see this for myself." He then brushed passed her. "See ya!"

She waved. "See ya."

Fernblade then entered further into the building. She didn't see Jazz in the living room, so she guessed that he might have been in his room. She strolled toward the hallway and rounded the corner. She came to his door and opened it.

"Jazz?" she called quietly.

It was very dark in the room, and she almost couldn't see anything. She didn't hear anyone call back and was about to close the door until she saw him on his berth. He was motionless and his optics were offline before they opened and were glowing in the darkness.

"Fern?" he answered back, slowly sitting up.

She smiled. "Hey, are you okay? We didn't see you outside."

He smiled tiredly back. "Oh, yeah. I just didn't recharge well last night."

Fernblade closed the door behind her and sat down on the berth beside him. She patted her hand on his knee.

"How come?"

He shrugged, blinking slowly at her. He looked so tired to her, and she wondered if he was about to drop dead asleep. He was swaying a bit in his sitting position, and his optics almost blinked from dimness to brightness.

He shook his head, resting an arm on his knee. "I don't know. I woke up sometime earlier this morning and couldn't go back into recharge."

Fernblade smiled, nodding in understanding. "Ah, I hate doing that."

He smiled. "Yeah, once ya wake up, ya can't get back to sleep." He then stretched, his mouth opening wide as he yawned.

She nodded. "Well, as long as you're okay." She stood up and turned toward the door, she stepped over a box of tablets. But then she stopped herself, and looked down at the box. She looked back at Jazz. He had already plopped onto his berth and fallen into recharge.

_What were you doing with all of these? _She frowned, bending down to pick up one of the tablets on the floor.

The tablets were supposed to be in the storage room. She guessed that he might have gotten them out during the night to read them. And that was probably why he was so tired. She sighed. Usually he got up very early to meditate with Prowl, which was a normal thing. They always meditated in the light shining through that big hole in the roof where the top of the tree exited the ceiling. She guessed that Prowl had to meditate by himself.

Prowl always got up before everybody else so that he could have some time to himself before Jazz came in to join him and before everybody woke up. But, although the others didn't notice, she had gotten into the habit of getting up right after him. One time she'd scared him into throwing a shuriken right past her head when she'd went into his room without him knowing. 'Sneaking up on him' was what he said about it. She remembered to knock on his door ever since.

As she began to pick the scattered tablets, she read the front of them. There was a few that said, 'Today's Driving Technology' that had pictures of very expensive cars on them. She glanced over at his night stand and saw one glowing blue. She stood up, placing the one in her hand that read, 'Music for Today's Culture' in the box before picking up the tablet on the night stand. She muffled a giggle and rolled her optics when she read, 'Jazzy songs for Groovy Rides'. He'd shown her one of these before. It was about what songs were good for certain rides and moods on traveling.

She carefully put the tablet with the others in the box, and then picked the box up and left the room. She walked down the hall toward the elevator. She knew they stored some things down there, and she'd been there only a few times before. She stepped into the elevator and let the door close. The cage suddenly jerked, and then slowly and roughly lowered.

Finally the cage settled on the ground. The door opened and she stepped into the basement. She strolled toward a few boxes and sat it beside them. Clapping her hands she turned and reentered the elevator and arrived to the first floor. She walked down the hallway, and jumped when she heard the sound of a very loud _bang. _She rushed down the hall and stood at the doorway, sighing with relief when she saw that it was only Bulkhead accidently falling after Prowl had tripped him.

She smiled as his legs flailed in the air. He was a… very large mech, and it was hard for him to get up once he had fallen on his back. She walked out into the lot toward the others. Suddenly she grinned and silenced her steps. She crept up to the group, and then poked Optimus's sides with her fingers.

"Boo!"

In sheer fright his siren blasted, making Ratchet, Sari, and Bumblebee jump in shock and Prowl and Bulkhead look back at him. Optimus snapped his head toward Fernblade and sighed, and then he looked at the two fighters.

"Keep going. It was an accident."

Prowl frowned at him, and was about to turn to Bulkhead when a cannonball hit him in the gut, sending him flying.

Fernblade laughed as Optimus glared at her for a minute. She then opened her optics wide at him, letting them turn misty looking. Optimus tried to resist her 'puppy eyes', but he then sighed, shaking his head. Fernblade could scare him into jumping all the way back to Cybertron, and he'd be mad at her afterwards. But… when she pulled that look, her optics huge and blinking and her bottom lip stuck out, he just couldn't stay mad at her for long.

She giggled and hugged his side. He let his arm wrap around her waist.

"Slag, don't scare me like that."

She smiled at him. "It was priceless."

"You almost gave me a spark-attack."

"Oh well," she said in a sweet tone. "That's why we have Ratchet."

The young Prime rolled his optics, smiling. He then lifted an optics ridge at her.

"Did you find Jazz?"

She nodded. "Yeah, he was in his room. He'd been up last night reading those car and music magazines."

Optimus nodded. He remembered that Jazz had stayed up last night in the living room the previous night reading some tablets. He'd went to bed, and took the tablets with him. So he wasn't surprised to find that he was tired from reading them in his room. Jazz was always reading something that the humans had come up with, especially musical and car magazines.

They watched as Prowl had gotten up from his surprise attack. He was dodging Bulkhead's wrecking ball smoothly as the large green bot swung it at him. Bulkhead was getting annoyed and heaved the ball hard and fast at the ninja-bot. The ball his it's target, but suddenly Prowl was gone. Bulkhead scratched his head for a moment, confused of where he had gone. Then the ninja-bot suddenly appeared behind him, skidding a foot behind Bulkhead's knee and causing the bigger bot to fall onto his back. Leaving him vulnerable, Prowl jumped onto his large chest, pressing his foot rather forcibly onto his upper chest.

Optimus rang his siren. Prowl got off of Bulkhead, walking behind him and pressing his hands against his back, trying desperately to push him back up. His legs slid as he leaned forward to help the bigger bot to get up.

Bumblebee laughed as Prowl growled in agitation. Then Bulkhead finally stood up shakily, but then when Prowl dusted himself off, he yelled when Bulkhead lost his balance and fell. On top of him. Bumblebee then hollered in laughter, rolling on the ground with Sari. Ratchet chuckled a bit as well. Optimus laughed along with Fernblade.

"Uh… where did Prowl go?" Bulkhead asked, bewildered of why everybody was laughing.

Having recovered from his death of laughter, Bumblebee jogged up to him. "Ya might want to consider what's under your aft, Bud."

Bulkhead blinked at him for a moment, and then his optics widened at large as soccer balls when he understood. He scrambled to sit up, only to fall back harder onto the poor ninja-bot under him.

Fernblade giggled. "Wait, Bulk." She and Optimus came up to Bulkhead. Optimus and Bumblebee got behind him and Fernblade knelt down where Prowl's arm was waving desperately to get out from under the large green bot. She nodded to the boys, and they heaved. Slowly, Bulkhead started to rise up. Fernblade swiftly grabbed hold of Prowl's arm, and pulled as hard as she could. He came sliding out from under Bulkhead, his shades wide. He was silent for a while as Optimus and Bumblebee helped Bulkhead get to his feet, making sure that he didn't fall on one of them next.

Prowl grumbled to himself, shaking his head and trying to not give Bulkhead a death glare. Fernblade giggled as she brushed him off. Bumblebee was about to say something about Prowl releasing his anger out on her if she touched him or tried to help him, but then his jaw dropped when he let her help him stand and dust his armor off. What the glitch was wrong with him? He _never _let anyone help him when he was embarrassed.

"I'm going to go inside for a while… a _very long _while…" Prowl muttered as he walked shakily towards the warehouse.

Fernblade nodded. "Alright, I'll meet ya inside in a minute."

He waved a hand in the air as he passed Ratchet and Sari, not wanting his voice to be heard. She sighed, looking at Bulkhead.

"Jeez, what's gotten into his tailpipe?" Bulkhead asked, blinking after the ninja-bot.

Fernblade laughed as she put her hands on her hips and leaned at an angle. "I think being sat on by you wasn't his intentional way of start his day, Bulk."

The large green mech smiled bashfully. "I guess not… should I go talk to him?" he asked lightly.

She shook her head. "Nah, I'll go talk to him. You stay here and train with Optimus and Bumblebee."

"You just got back out here, though." Bumblebee complained.

She shot him a challenging grin. "Want a rematch?"

He waved his hands in front of him. "No, no! I just thought that you'd miss the fight with me and Ratchet."

She shook her head, turning away and walking towards the building again. This time on her way to help her 'brother' reclaim his dignity and piece of mind. She knew how Prowl went to curl up in his tree when he was embarrassed or ashamed of something that had happened. She knew him well enough to always check that tree in his room. As she passed by Ratchet, she grinned at him.

"Don't electrocute him."

He shifted his hands into his magnetic claws. "Don't worry, I won't… much."

She laughed, and continued toward the building. She entered the doorway again, smiling happily when she saw Jazz walking through the living room.

"Hey, have a good nap?"

He shrugged, yawning. But he was constantly looking around. "Yeah, it was alright. Have you seen a box of tablets anywhere?"

She nodded. "Yeah, it was in your room. I put it in the basement."

He sighed, placing a hand on his chest. "Oh thanks! Prime would kill me if he thought I'd lost that thing. Those were expensive."

She smiled as he walked past her. "See ya."

She nodded at him. "Later."

She made her way down the hall toward Prowl's room. She paused at his door to knock, but chose to walk in without doing so. She knew he was too hooked up in his thoughts and shame to even think about throwing his shurikens at her. She closed the door behind her and looked at the tree.

"Alright, you big baby, come down."

As expected he slowly slipped down the trunk of the tree. He had an emotionless expression and stood in front of the tree. She stared blankly at him, giving him an equally silent treatment. They did this a lot, almost like a competition. Whoever broke the stare first lost, and this time, she was not going to lose.

He stared at her for an equal amount of time, and then groaned, sitting down. She grinned triumphantly and strolled over next to him, kneeling on her knee.

"You alright?"

He shrugged, not saying anything. She frowned and taped his shoulder.

"Hello? Anyone home in their?" she asked, tapping his head.

He turned his head away, still giving her the silent treatment. She sighed, glaring at him. He could act like a sparkling at times, which made her consider actually _turning _him into one, with the ray they still had that had turned Optimus into a sparkling before. She knew that Bumblebee would have gotten a kick out of it, but she chose not to even remind him of it. Instead, she considered Prowl like a little brother.

"Prowl, come on. You can't keep up this silent wall forever."

She grumbled under her breath, and stood up to exit the room. When she got to the door, she suddenly halted. She stood there, and then grinned inwardly. If she wasn't going to get him to talk politely, she was going to have to do it forcibly. She quietly pushed in a lock code in the keypad in the door. This meant that unless he knew her password, he couldn't get out of the room unless he wanted to be exposed by the others outside by jumping through the open ceiling, which she knew he wasn't going to do.

_Hopefully he won't kill me for this. _She thought as she turned on her heel, and smiled sweetly at Prowl, earning a confused and actually dreading look.


	2. Chapter 2

**You Caught My Optics Part Two**

By

Dragon with a Shotgun

**Yes, it seems that Fern always plans things for Prowl, being her sort of brother. Or something like that. But, I hope you liked the first chapter. I had trouble working on it because I don't know where to start exactly. But, I think it went better than I had thought. Enjoy!**

**Chapter One**

Fernblade smiled as she looked down from the branch of the tree at the ninja-bot. She had chased him all around the room, and he'd ran because he was worried of what she was going to do to him. He knew for fact that females could be unpredictable and could do anything without a mech knowing, even when it was right in front of their face. Even though mechs could be good ninjas, femmes were natural at being the ultimate tricksters and one of the sneakiest beings in the universe.

While she chased him, she had cornered him up in his tree, but before he could jump out of it, his foot had slipped and both of his feet had gotten caught in the fork-like structure of the branch. He was now hanging upside down, not able to pull himself up and pry his feet free from the branches. At first, she had planned to drag him outside to the others. She'd locked the door at first because she didn't want him to get away from her, knowing that he was very hard to catch, and was going to unlock it when she had gotten a hold of him. But, now that he was in the tree stuck, the option of dragging him out with the others was out.

But, she had went outside after he had gotten stuck and told the others to continue their training and that she'd be out there after a long while. She knew that this was going to take a long talk, but also it would take a very long time to get him out of the tree. So, for his sake, she didn't tell them about his little situation.

She watched as he flailed his arms, trying to swing himself up to grab the branch in a desperate attempt to break free, but slumped back down from the branch. He crossed his arms and just sat there, swaying slightly as he hung upside down from the branch of his beloved tree. Fernblade then folded her arms under her chin.

"Are you willing to talk now?"

He didn't say anything, nor did he look up at her. Instead he kept silent as he relaxed his body. She glared at him and dropped down from the branch, landing in front of him. She stared at him for a moment, waiting for him to speak. But, when he didn't, she poked him in the forehead.

"Look, bot, I'm not going to stand here all day and wait for you to answer. So at least say something."

He huffed, still keeping his face emotionless and staring ahead as he swayed more from her poking him. She knew what he was up to. He thought that if he stayed quiet for long enough, she would give up and help him from his awkward and surprising predicament. Prowl wasn't one to accept being comforted when he was upset. He wanted to be on his own, and was ashamed to even be seen by anybody when embarrassed.

When Prowl still didn't answer, she growled at him. How was she going to get him to talk? He was so stubborn that she wanted to slap him on the back of the head. But, she then put her hands on her hips.

"Do I have to get that Sparkling Ray out?" she asked.

He turned his head slightly toward her, studying her for a moment, and then blinked slowly before looking away. She glared at him.

_Slag, he is good. _She wasn't going to actually turn him into a sparkling, and he must have somehow seen it in her optics that she wasn't serious about that threat. She crossed her arms, now very impatient with the all-too patient ninja-bot. She sat down in front of him, keeping her optics on him in the air as silent as wind. She thought of anything that she could do to him, anything that could at least make him speak. A simple "I don't want to talk about it" would even satisfy her. But he hadn't spoken at all since she entered the room, and it made her wonder why he had even come down from the tree. If he wasn't going to speak to her, he didn't even need to come down from the tree at all.

She stared at him for the longest of times, studying his facial expressions. She then smiled and stood up before jumping up the tree trunk. She then hooked her feet on the branch, and hung beside him, smiling at him before he quickly turned away. Sometimes it surprised her how he could turn his body in ways that would with some others dislocate their bodies, but she could do the same, being a flexible femme. She muttered under her breath, and turned away, mimicking his pose and emotion. From the corner of her eye, she could see him tilt his head toward her to peek at her. She couldn't help but grin when he snapped his head away.

She then turned toward him, still hanging by her feet, and put a hand in his back.

"Hey, come on, Prowl. Don't be like that." She said.

He didn't move. She was infuriated now, and was about to hit him in the back. But suddenly, it hit her.

_He's playing around! This is a new game! _She blinked for a moment, and then crossed her arms. He'd been playing this game for all this time, and she hadn't caught on to it! He'd been ignoring her, waiting until she broke and made a move, possibly one that could help him get loose of the branches. But, now that she knew that was what he was doing, it was too late for that. But then, she noticed that he still hadn't moved, and poked him in the side.

Her optics widened when he flinched, tensing up. She blinked at him in confusion for a moment. Was he really…? She poked him again, in the side, earning another twitch of his arm. She then grinned deviously as if she was the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. The idea bounced around in her head as she thought out a plan.

It became too quiet for Prowl to handle, which was unusual for him. He usually could handle silence. But, the way she had suddenly become so quiet made him curious, and he couldn't help but peek over his shoulder at her. When he saw the grin on her face, he frowned at her, turning his body back around.

"What?" was all he could say after all that time. Even though he didn't want to talk, he was growing nervous of what that look meant. When she had poked him, had he really given enough signs to make her think that he was...? He never told the other Autobots about his weakness, especially Bumblebee. If that yellow bot knew that the ninja-bot was ticklish, he'd be planning all kinds of torture for the future. Prowl had kept it a secret for so long that he's _forgotten _that he was ticklish. But, at that moment, he could only stare at her with dreading optics as she stared at him upside down.

"Uh… Fern?"

She looked up at her feet for a moment, breaking optic contact. He watched as she pulled up and got onto the branch. He couldn't see her for a moment, and heard her shift around above him and behind him. The weight on the branch he was stuck in lifted.

"Fern, what are you going to do?" Prowl asked nervously as she began to crack her knuckles and roll her shoulders.

She didn't make eye contact with him. "Oh, just a little experiment. If you're not gonna talk to me like an adult, and act like a big sparkling," she then looked back at him in the optics, "then I'm going to treat you like a big sparkling."

He tried to control himself, but he felt his body shivering in anxiety. If she was going to do what he thought that she was going to do, then he was toast. He was trapped upside down in the tree, couldn't move his feet, couldn't get back down on the ground, and worst of all, she was behind him where he couldn't defend himself properly. The only way he could protect himself was to strain his arms to keep her off. He couldn't hurt her, and didn't want to, but in the process, he didn't want to _be _hurt.

She settled herself on the branch behind Prowl, hooking her feet, in the branch behind the one Prowl was stuck in, in a way that if she accidently moved, she wouldn't fall. She saw the armor n his back shaking a bit, and grinned wider. Gently, she brushed her fingers up, or down in their upside down position, on his sides.

Prowl gasped quietly, a smile curving his mouth before he could stop it. A chuckle erupted from his throat before he snapped his mouth shut and held his breath, stiffening his body. Not getting the response that she wanted exactly, she put some more pressure on his sides, now wiggling her fingers. He then squirmed a bit, firmly pressing his arms against his sides in order to protect himself. But, she reached a hand around and poked his stomach, earning a chuckle and causing his hand to move to his stomach area. Then she started to let it all out on him, wiggling her fingers into his sides, getting his stomach, under his arms, and neck.

He erupted into laughter, squirming and struggling. Fernblade was surprised of his reactions and giggled along with him. She noted that his most ticklish spot was his upper sides towards the front. It wasn't on his stomach, but it wasn't exactly on his back.

_Primus, if I'd known about this I would have done this sooner!_

He then grabbed her hands when she worked on his sides. She grinned at him as he looked over his shoulder.

"Alright, alright! I'll talk!"

Not really wanting to stop, she frowned. But, seeing that he was out of breath and having after giggles, she smiled and pulled up. She then reappeared in front of him, again hanging upside in front of him. He stared at her for a moment, not saying anything.

She wiggled her fingers at him. "What are ya waiting for? Laughter therapy?"

He frowned. "Aren't you going to unhook me?" he asked, looking back up at his feet before crossing his arms.

She shook her head. "Not until we settle this. What's wrong with you?"

He looked at her as if she was stupid, raising an optics ridge and frowning. She stared back at him as well, waiting for his response. It felt like an eternity before he finally spoke, but was only a minute or two.

"You ought to know what is wrong with me."

She glared at him. "No, I don't know what is wrong with you. You would've talked to me when I came in, not give me the silent treatment."

He frowned. "Well, maybe I didn't want to talk about it."

"The maybe you should've told me that from the start." She shot back.

He opened his mouth to counter it, but then paused. He stared at her, and then sighed. "I'm sorry."

She sat there for a long moment, tapping her fingers on her crossed arms. "So, why are you so upset?"

"For one, you tickling me half to death." He replied with a slight smile.

She rolled her optics at him, and then she dimmed her optics in concern. She hated it when he tried to hide something, especially from her. It was so agitating when there was something wrong with him, and he never told anybody. It made her feel like she'd done something wrong sometimes until she talked to him. But, she cared for him very much, like a brother. So, why wouldn't it agitate hr?

"But, what is seriously wrong with you?" she asked

He sighed, looking away, his shades dimming. He waited for a moment to gather his words before speaking.

"I… well… I don't know how to say it."

She suddenly regretted asking. Did he love her in a different way than she had thought? Oh Primus, if he did, this would be VERY wrong. Especially since she and Optimus were together. She loved Prowl, but not in THAT way. She had thought of him as a brother, and this was almost scary. Her spark buzzed with dread as he found his words.

"I have a feeling that I… have to protect you. You are like a younger sibling to me, and that makes me feel as though I can't let you see me humiliated, so I wish for you not to see me in this state." He said all in one breath, looking away.

Her spark suddenly became relieved, and melted into appreciation. She smiled at him as he turned his head away, happy that he told her what he was thinking. Then she pulled herself up onto the branch. She positioned herself by Prowl's feet, and put her hands on the branches trapping him.

Prowl was caught off-guard and yelped when he suddenly fell out of the tree and onto the ground, landing on his head. He groaned and sat up rubbing his head. He shook his head and looked up at Fernblade, who was sitting in the tree, smiling.

"Okay, bro, let's get back to the others outside." She said, swinging her feet on th branch and landing beside him. Then she held a hand out to help him up.

The mech smiled at her, and took her hand. But then he tightened his grip on her wrist and pulled her down. She yelped when he pinned her on the floor.

"Prowl, come on! No fair!"

He smiled evilly at her. "It wasn't fair for you to torture me when I was stuck."

She laughed. "But I had a real reason."

"Oh, but so do I." he stated before poking his fingers into her sides and stomach.

Fernblade burst into laughter, squirming and wriggling as hard as she could within his group. He chuckled as she tried to get loose, but failed. After a minute, he let her go, letting her sit up to catch her breath.

"You jerk." She giggled.

He shrugged before standing up, grabbing her wrist and pulling her up. They walked out the door, into the living room, and out the door. They saw the others laughing at Bumblebee as he dangled in Ratchet's magnetic hold. Prowl went back to the place he'd been before he had fought and Fernblade snuck back under Optimus's arm. Fernblade saw that Sari had joined on Bumblebee's team, hoping to even the odds. But, she had been caught in Ratchet's grip as well. Bumblebee tried to shoot electric bolts at the medic, but the older bot was shockingly faster on his feet than the others had thought.

Ratchet was seen as an old medic bot that helped aid the Autobots, but underneath that old cranky armor was a quick, wise, and a good fighting mech. Even at times, he could be a funny bot if you didn't make him upset. But, it was normal to see him as a grouchy mech, since Bumblebee was always doing something to agitate him and something was always going on.

Sari wriggled in the magnetic grip, trying to loose. But, just as Bumblebee was having trouble getting loose, she gave up and crossed her arms.

Optimus rang is sirens. Bumblebee, not having a jet pack nor having his jet boosters on at that moment, dropped to the ground with a hard thud. He shook his head and looked up with wide optics.

"What? I lost twice?! No way!"

Ratchet smiled, and acted like he was blowing imaginary smoke off of his magnets. "Either I'm getting better or you're slacking off, kid."

The yellow bot pouted and stood up, mumbling as he brushed himself off. Sari flew onto his shoulder.

"Hey, you weren't the only one that lost!" she reminded him, crossing her arms again. He cringed at her voice being so close to his audio, and then he smiled warily.

"Heh, thanks, Sari." He said, giving her a high-five.

Jazz chuckled under his breath as the yellow mech sat down beside him, earning a slap on the back of the head. Optimus smiled at their recovery and then turned to the others.

"Alright, is that everybody?" he asked.

He was then surprised when his arm was pulled and he almost tripped forward into the 'battlefield' of a lot.

Fernblade smiled over her shoulder. "You and me, Chief."

He blinked at her in surprise before glancing at the others for some kind of help. They all grinned and motioned with their hands for him to continue onto the lot. Bumblebee waved his hand.

"I got the siren, boss-bot!"

The young Prime's optics widened. It wasn't like he didn't want to have a match with her, but in the process he didn't want to hurt her and, like Bumblebee, didn't know how to exactly fight a femme. He knew that this femme and he were 'together', but he still didn't want to embarrass the both of them out in the field in front of everybody. Besides, it was actually kind of embarrassing to have his… well… 'girlfriend' pull him out onto the field wanting to have a go with a match.

But, he knew that he had to suck it up and go with it. If he knew one thing, it was that when Fernblade had her processer set on something, she wasn't going to change it. So, basically, he had no choice but to accept her challenge.

The Prime turned and made his way toward the opposite side of the lot, his mind screaming at him for not trying to object to the fight. It would've settled for him trying to sit back down and watching her fight someone else. But, he scolded his processer into silence, and turned around to face the femme across from him. She was grinning at him as she stretched her arms from side to side. He just settled with rolling his shoulders and repositioning his feet.

_Slag, what have I gotten myself into? _

He sighed quietly, cursing things in his mind that he was glad that the others couldn't hear. He then relaxed as he awaited Bumblebee's siren. And when it did, his processer went blank.

He didn't know what to do. This wasn't a planned fight with a Decepticon, and it wasn't normal for him to train like this. ESPECIALLY with a femme. He took hesitant steps forward, watching her every move she took from blinking to walking. She seemed too at ease. It made him feel awkward. If anything, she was walking confidently, crossing her feet and swaying her hips as she walked sideways as they circled each other silently.

Optimus tried to plan on what he was going to do, but he suddenly froze in his tracks, going blank like a deer caught in headlights. She, on the other hand, acted exactly like she knew what she was doing, not taking her optics off of his. There was almost an enchanting glimmer in her optics, giving them a shimmer –like glow. They made his processer feel odd.

Ratchet had done an examination on her a while ago to check if her systems were working properly after a race with Nanosec. She had fallen down sometime during it, and received an injury. The older bot mentioned that while he was taking a look at her, he noticed that when he took a look at her optics, they glimmered in a way that messed a mech's processer up like scrambled eggs. He said it was called Charming. He had explained that some femmes had the unique ability to 'charm' mechs in certain ways and use it to their advantages in battle. Fernblade apparently had that ability and was not able to control it then. But now, it seemed that she was able to control her 'charm', and was using it with him.

The look she had made him feel like he was fighting a Decepticon in real, but… then he came up with an idea.

He had to admit, Starscream was a feminine looking mech. Optimus noticed that, which had caught him off-guard when they had first met. So, with that thought, he tried imagining Fernblade as Starscream, hoping that it would help him focus. And surprisingly, it did kind of. He could almost see the 'Con standing there in her place at that moment. But, that didn't help much about her optics staring at him and screwing his mind up.

He smiled in confidence now, ignoring her optics the best he could, and straightened himself before he took sure steps straight towards her. She smiled surely, and walked toward him as well. Suddenly Optimus held up his arm, and powered his extinguisher. Fernblade dodged the liquid, and sprinted forward. He then shot his grappler from his arm. It wrapped around her, tying her arms against her body and causing her to fall.

Bumblebee was about to fire off his siren, but Fernblade slipped her blades through the wire, and sprinted back on course. But before she got too far, she grabbed the wire.

Optimus guessed that she was going to do the same thing as she did to Bumblebee, and spread his feet farther apart so that there was little chance to tie them together. He took his turbo-axe out from his back, and charged forward. They ran full speed at each other, fixing to make a blow at each other. But right as Optimus was about to swing his axe, Fernblade disappeared right under his feet, literally. She slid between his feet and appeared behind him. She lunged onto his back and wrapped the wire around his neck, and pulled.

"Ack!" the Prime yelped and quickly raised his hands up to his neck, desperately trying to loosen the rope as his axe landed on the ground with a _twang_. She kept a firm grip with her hand inside the wire between it and his neck so that it didn't choke him to death. But, in his panic, he thought that he was being strangled. He struggled. She wrapped her legs wrapped around his upper abdomen, holding on tight.

_And I thought that _I _didn't want to hurt_ her_!_ He thought to himself in between thoughts.

Gifted with quick planning, Optimus then raised his arms behind his head, grabbed the surprised femme, and threw her onto the ground at his feet. Big mistake. She pulled on the wire around his neck, causing him to fall forward and allowing her to, while he was on his back, wrap her legs around his in a twist. She pulled the wire still wrapped around his neck, and tightened her legs, raising them in a painful leg lock.

He yelled and resisted calling for help. He wanted to get out of the hold, but he didn't want to be beaten either. Unless he tapped out, he was going to be in this lock until Ratchet told Bumblebee to blare the siren.

_I guess I got more than I bargained for. _He thought again between thoughts.

A shock of sharp pain erupted in his hip, feeling her heel dig into the wires at his ankles. She might have been a small femme, but she could _flex_! The more she raised her legs twisted in his, the more pain that throbbed in his legs and hip.

Bumblebee cringed, covering his optics. "Jeez, that looks painful!"

Optimus growled, straining his neck with the wire. "It is!"

Bulkhead covered his optics and Sari cringed. Prowl sat in his spot, pressing his ankles closer to the ground. Jazz gasped and cringed. That did look… quite painful. Ratchet stared for a moment, and tapped on the yellow mech's shoulder. "Alright kid, fire it up."

Bumblebee nodded meekly and blared his siren.

Fernblade grinned, kissing Optimus's forehead before releasing him. He gasped and went limp, grabbing his neck and placing a hand on his side. Fernblade knelt down, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Come one, it wasn't that bad." She said, smiling.

He sighed, dropping his head on the ground. "You have no idea…"

She rolled her optics, and bent down to raise his arm so that is on her shoulder, and stood up. He grunted and limped on his left leg a bit, rubbing his neck.

"You'll be fine. You've went _offline _before. I think that's worse than this." She said, letting him get his balance and walking beside him.

He huffed, tilted his head. "True, true, but I don't think I've ever felt a pain like that before."

She smiled and grabbed her arm behind her back, her usual way of walking during a conversation. He chuckled and sat down beside Ratchet before he knelt down to take a look at him. After a few minutes of observing their leader, he looked at her with a amused smile.

"Slag, Fern, you broke one of the wires at his ankle!"

She laughed and lifted her heel up. "Might need these if you ever come across Starscream. I'll show him a real heal and shove one up his aft."

All of them burst out laughing at her joke. Bulkhead let Optimus grab his shoulder as he limped with Ratchet on his other side. They walked into the warehouse and let the Prime get settled onto the examining berth. Ratchet then began to work on his foot, repairing the wires and patching up the area. Fernblade sat on the sofa with Jazz and Bumblebee, watching as they had started a new game. Prowl had gone to his room as usual, and Sari was sitting on Bumblebee's leg. Bulkhead was busy painting something on his canvas across the room with less noise.

She looked over her shoulder at Optimus, who was sitting up now. He looked at her, and smiled. He mouthed, 'I'll get you back for that."

She grinned. They had gotten into the habit of mouthing sentences to each other, after the Prime had finally learned how to understand it. But, ever since, if they didn't want something to be heard out loud, they mouthed words and sentences to each other.

She mouthed back, 'Sure you will.'

He grinned secretly, and looked away. She looked back at the TV as the two players' avatars were beating each other up. She almost couldn't believe how they could play these games 24-7. They literally played them every day of the week!

Optimus chuckled quietly as he watched the others on the sofa. He then remembered the look she had when he was training with her a few minutes ago. She had almost hypnotized him with those optics, and he wondered if they were the reason he fell for her so quickly from the start. He remembered the first moment he saw her. Her optics put him in a trance that sent his processer running, leaving his body dumbfounded and not knowing what to do exactly.

But, he didn't care. They were together now, and nothing on Earth, in the galaxy, or the universe could break them apart.

Nothing.


	3. Chapter 3

**You Caught My Optics Part Two**

By

Dragon with a Shotgun

**Hey! I hope you liked my last chapter; I had just as much trouble with it as I did with the first one. I had a bad week, so I kind of had trouble thinking right and after I read the last chapter when I had posted it, I wasn't so sure about it. But, anyway, enjoy!**

**Chapter Three**

It was a quiet time in Detroit. There had been no police calls or fire calls, or any emergencies in that matter. The traffic was as calm but also as noisy as usual with people blaring their horns at others, yelling for the cars in front of them to go faster. It was a normal thing for the city though, and was actually considered quiet for the Autobots at the warehouse. But, things were so quiet and calm at the abandoned warehouse at that moment.

"Ouch! Ratchet, be easy!"

"If you'd quit moving it wouldn't hurt so much, Prime!" the medic snapped.

Optimus grunted, jerking his foot when Ratchet tried to work on the wires in his ankle again. This had been going on for the past half hour. When Fernblade had dug her sharp heel into his ankle in that leg lock during training, she had apparently done more damage than Ratchet had first thought. The internal wires in his leg had twisted up into his shin and his thigh, and into his hip. Ratchet was steadily and impatiently working on settling the wires back into place, but whenever he touched an open wire to twist it back into place, the young Prime jerked and made him pull the wire harder.

The medic couldn't blame the poor bot though. That lock Fernblade had him in really did a number on the mech. Most bots weren't built to flex that far. If Fernblade had lifted and twisted her legs any more than she had when Ratchet had stopped them, she would've probably broke one of Optimus's body parts around his hip joints or legs. And she might have not noticed until it was too late. Ratchet had explained to her to be careful when using that move during training, but that she could use it with all force during a real battle.

But the question was, how did she learn that move and where. When that question came up, she had explained that before she was sent by Sentinel to investigate the threat of the weapon that had come up on Earth, she had trained with warrior class fighters to prepare for anything that could have gone wrong during her trip to and on Earth. The warriors had taught her how to defend herself, fight back, and how to pull off certain locks such as the one she gave Optimus. But she said that she wasn't going to twist hard enough to hurt him to severity, but just enough to make him tap out. The point was to carefully raise her legs twisted in his until the pain became too unbearable. It was meant to be a 'gentle' lock in the warrior class terms.

Ratchet carefully untwisted his wires at his ankles first, trying to work his way up to the Prime's hip. But the younger mech wouldn't hold still, jerking and shifting his legs. Ratchet grumbled, firmly pressing Optimus's leg down against the berth.

"Settle down!" he said, giving the young Prime a warning glare.

"I'm sorry! I can't help it."

"Well, at least try to." The medic sighed.

Optimus frowned and lied back down. He hated it when the medic treated him like a sparkling. Well, then again, wasn't he actually a sparkling just a few weeks ago? He yelped when Ratchet pinched a wire at his thigh, and tried to stiffen his movements so the medic could work, but the feeling was very annoying and it hurt. But, as much as it pinched and pulled, the Prime settled and ignored the feeling.

"There," Ratchet sighed, "It's done. But I'd recommend that you didn't do anything too active for the next few days."

Optimus nodded, and stood up to test how much weight he could put on it. It was an uncomfortable feeling with the bandages around his ankle. It was stiff and made it awkward to walk. But, he guessed that he'd manage. He nodded at Ratchet, who was waiting for a comment.

"It's good, Ratchet."

The medic nodded blankly and went back to work on another project that he'd been working on before. That bot always seemed to be working on a new machine or testing on something. It was normal to wake up in the morning to find him grumbling over a mistake in his work.

The Prime walked over to the couch and sat on one end of it. Sari was sitting on the other end watching a show about a man with a blue suit and red cape. He had heard her explain the movie to Bumblebee once, remembering that it was called _Superman_. He heard her say that it was about a man who had super powers and saved the world many times. But, he often found the movie a little silly. A human with super powers including flying, lazar eyes, super strength? That was a little odd for him to chew on. But, then again, with many humans inventing new weapons, including the ray that had turned him into a sparkling, and new chemicals for new uses, he shouldn't be a bit surprised.

He stared blankly at the TV, not really interested in the cartoon show. Jazz was on the floor with one leg hooked over the knee of the other, reading some sports cars magazines on tablets and listening to music. Bulkhead was sitting beside him, watching the TV show with wide optics, cringing at explosions and thought to be 'scary' parts of the movie. From the corner of his optics, Optimus saw Bumblebee behind the sofa. The yellow grinned at him, and as slowly and quietly as he could, reached his hands down behind Sari. Suddenly a woman screamed on the TV, and so did a teenager techno-organic.

Sari spun around, glaring at Bumblebee. "Bee, don't scare me like that!"

He laughed, pointing at her. "If I didn't know any better, I would think that you played as that woman on TV."

Sari crossed her arms, turning away. "Not funny!"

Bumblebee rolled his optics and walked around the sofa. Sari kept her back to him, frowning. Sari didn't always get mad at such things, and often laughed at them. It sort of wasn't normal for her to be offended like this. He smiled and sat on the arm of the sofa.

"Ah, come on, Sari," he said, letting his optics grow misty. "Ya can't stay mad at me forever."

She didn't look at him, and when she spoke, her tone was slightly edgy. "I can stay mad for as long as I want."

He sighed, leaning against the back of the couch. The yellow bot and the techno-organic were like siblings, always playing jokes, having fun, and doing anything that was against Ratchet's orders. It was usually surprising whenever one of them got mad at the other, being so close. They were a mischievous pair. They always had a plot set for somebody. Even though Sari was a teenager, and was more responsible and serious about some things, she had never lost her playful side.

Bumblebee was quiet for a moment before he grinned. He leaned toward her and lifted an optic ridge. "Come on, at least smile for me!"

Sari resisted the urge to turn around to look at him. She planted her feet and straightened her posture. Whenever she did this, she meant business. She'd only been doing this since she was turned into a teenager. All of the Autobots remembered when she had tried to upgrade herself, and wreaked havoc in the city. She wasn't able to control her body, being overpowered by the power of the Allspark's energy within the key she had connected into her chest. Bumblebee was almost killed trying to help her, and even taking the key out of her chest didn't help. The energy from the key remained in her, and overloaded her systems. But, she had recovered after ratchet using his generator. Ever since then, she had remained a teenager.

Bumblebee sighed, looking away for a short minute. Then, his face lit up, as if he had come up with an idea. He secretly slid a finger to her and wiggled it into her side. She giggled, trying to get away from his finger. Then he snatched her up and held her in his arm, his fingers attacking her stomach.

"Bee!" she giggled squirming.

Bumblebee smiled at her. "Ya got to be my friend again if you want me to stop."

She laughed as he put more pressure on her sides. "Okay! Okay! I'll be your friend again!"

He laughed, letting her wrap her small arms around his neck in a hug. He hugged her back. Optimus smiled, blinking slowly. The Prime stood up, and wondering where Fernblade was, started down the hall. He carefully made his way up the stairs and came to her room door. He knocked on the door.

"Come in."

He opened the door, and smiled. They had installed a bar pipe in her room on the ceiling a few days ago for her own reasons. It hung down so that she could hook her knees in it and do pull-ups, which was what she was doing at that moment. But along with the pull-ups, she also did punches when she came up, bringing her chin up to the bar. She was quietly counting how many she had done.

"Twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven…"

Optimus watched her for a moment before she sighed and hung upside down from the bar, smiling back at him.

"Having fun, there?" he asked, leaning against the wall behind him.

She grinned at him. "Yep, you?" she replied, looking at his leg.

He glanced down at the bandages on his ankle, and shrugged. "Not so much. I wouldn't call having my leg almost broken by a femme putting me in a leg lock 'fun'." He held up his hands and did the quote sign at the word 'fun'.

She laughed, swaying a little. "Sorry 'bout that."

He walked over and looked down at her from her upside down position. "It's fine. I'll live."

She sighed, and pulled up, pecking him on the cheek before hanging back down. He smiled, shifting his weight on his leg. She pulled up and grabbed the bar to lower herself to the ground.

"What did Ratchet say about your ankle?"

"He said to not do anything active. But it would be alright."

She nodded in understanding. "Oh, well, it'll get better soon." She assured, not really knowing what else to say.

Optimus smiled, shrugging absently. He wasn't so sure what to say himself. He had something that he wanted to talk to her about when he had started his way to her room, but once he got to it, he suddenly lost the memory of what he was going to discuss with her about.

He watched as she sighed and turned away before sitting on her berth. The sunset's light shined on her, giving her green armor an orange or pink-like glow. He smiled as she turned to the window, her optics shining brighter than the soft rays of the sunlight. He noticed the glimmer that he had seen during the training when he had gone against her. Her 'charm', so to say. He wondered if it was just him, or if it was actually natural for her optics to do that. Then he suddenly remembered what he had wanted to talk to her about. But also, he didn't know how to say it exactly.

He took his optics off of her, working out how to tell her. He didn't notice her turn her head, looking at him curiously.

"Is something bothering you, Optimus?"

The Prime looked back to her, interrupted in his thoughts. But he smiled weakly.

"Oh, uh… yes. I am fine." He said. He felt as if he was lying to her. But was he?

She tilted her head at him, giving him a quizzical frown. "Are you sure?"

He nodded. But, then he shrugged, and then he shook his head. He didn't know what to do. What he was about to ask her made him nervous, and he strained to keep his hands still. They slightly shook in anxiety, and he let out a choked cough.

"Well, okay, um… Fern…" he stammered, not knowing how to say it. He raised a hand and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yes?" she urged.

He coughed again. She tilted her head at him curiously.

"Um… you and me have been together for a while… right?"

She smiled oddly, nodding. "Yes. Why?"

He nodded, and then placed his hands on his sides, planning his words carefully. He waited for a moment before continuing.

"Well, you see, I wanted to make sure… if… well, if you and I were going to be… uh…" he started, but then sighed. Groaning, he slowly let his legs slide and he sat on the floor, resting his arm on his raised knee.

_Slag… this is going to be harder than I thought…_

Fernblade blinked at him. Then she smiled. "Are you saying that you are wanting us to be… spark mates?"

He lifted his head and, finding that she might have understood, nodded.

"Yes… if you want to be…"

She stared at him for a moment, pondering over what he said. She knew that they had been together for a while, and that they loved each other. But… she never considered the thought of them being spark mates. The thought made her feel funny, fluttery. She didn't say anything for a while, and it left an eerie, awkward silence between them.

Optimus began to feel embarrassed, and wished that he'd never even spoke, nor come up here. He hadn't counted for what she'd say when he'd let the words slip out of his mouth like he had oil in his mouth. He watched her as she sat on the berth, not knowing what she was going to say and wishing that he knew what she was thinking. He wondered if humans ever had this kind of reaction from women when men asked them to marry them.

At one moment Fernblade was sitting on her berth, staring oddly at him. The next she was suddenly on him, her arms wrapped around his neck.

"Yes!" she squealed happily. "Yes, I want to!"

For a moment the Prime could only sit there, stunned with his hands on the floor supporting her weight on his chest. Then, ever so slightly, a smile crept up on him, and his mouth curved into a relieved and awkward smile.

"Y-you want to?" he asked, uncertain.

She nodded against his shoulder. "Yes."

He blinked. "Are you sure about this, Fern?"

He got his answer when she smothered his cheek in many kisses. He chuckled, and fell backwards as she leaned on him. She laughed, and almost surprised him by pressing her lips against his. His optics widened, and he wasn't sure of what to in his shocked state. But, he smiled against her mouth and hugged her closer, leaning into the kiss. He was now at ease, knowing that she accepted. His spark gave off soft humming at her answer, and his head didn't feel as if it was hollow.

He grunted when she squeezed his neck tighter, smiling when they parted.

"Strong grip," he choked.

She giggled and loosened. "Sorry, I'm just so happy."

He huffed and rested his hand on her back. "I am too. Should we tell the others?"

She thought for a minute, and then shook her head. "Not yet. We'll tell them tomorrow." She looked toward the window.

Optimus tilted his head, looking back at the window. The sunset had disappeared, and now the stars shimmered in the sky. Part of the sun's rays still glowed from far off behind the city's tall buildings, but from where the warehouse was, only stars were visible over them now that the sun's rays were now gone. Replacing the sun was an almost full moon that lit up the sky with its soft white glow.

"I suppose we could tell them tomorrow." The Prime said finally, looking back at the femme on his chest. But, then he lost his thoughts when his optics landed on hers. Her optics yet again gave off that soft glimmer that felt as if they made his processer fuzzy. He wondered if she was actually using them on him, or if the mood she was in triggered it.

She blinked slowly, and she leaned toward him. He lied still as she kissed him softly on the lips again, and this time, it looked as if they weren't going to part. They were locked together, sighing and wrapping their arms around each other. But, suddenly, she slowly leaned back. Optimus blinked at her slowly, wondering why she had parted.

She sighed deeply, catching her breath. "Can we… go to your room?"

The Prime saw the shine in her optics, and understood what she meant.

Bulkhead covered his optics with his h=large claw-like hands. Superman was about to die! He couldn't! The super human was about to go into a cave where a trap was going to be sprung and all of the boulders would fall on him, and he'd be trapped in the cave.

Sari giggled and patted the green mech's knee. "Bulkhead, don't worry! He'll live."

The large mech slightly uncovered his optics, peering down at the young techno-organic. "Are you sure?"

She laughed at him. "Of course! Superman always survives the evil's traps."

"Really?" he asked, letting his servos rest on his legs. "But how? The traps are so well planned out. How could someone survive them?"

Sari threw her arms up in the air in a dramatic way. "He ALWAYS lives! He's Superman, Bulkhead."

Bulkhead's expression brightened. "Oh, right!"

Bumblebee laughed, shaking his head. Bulkhead could be such a scaredy-cat! Sure, he might look like a big rough and tough bot on the outside, but on the inside, was just a big softy. But, he was a great friend, and would do anything to help his team.

Suddenly the yellow mech looked around. "Hey, where's Prime?"

Ratchet shrugged, putting away the project he was working on. "I recon he went to recharge early."

Bumblebee huffed, and then shrugged, leaning back into the sofa. Jazz yawned quite loudly, taking another tablet that read, 'Amusing Things to Do When Bored'. He went through a few screen pictures, or pages, and then laughed out loud. He was reading an article about the funny picture before it was suddenly snatched from his servos.

"Hey!" he cried, glaring up at Bumblebee, who was reading it.

The younger bot rubbed his chin, and then grinned. "You were thinking about using this on someone?" He turned the tablet to show a video of a person turning on a scan of a chair by a group of people, then when someone came over to sit in the chair, he fell through, making everybody around him laugh.

Jazz frantically shook his head, putting his hands up. "No, man! I wasn't!"

Bumblebee nodded, smiling mischievously. "Uh-huh…"

The white bot glared at him, trying to make a grab for the tablet, only for the yellow mech to raise up higher. He then jumped on Bumblebee, pinning him. Bumblebee held it far from his head.

"Come on, give it!"

Bumblebee shook his head. "Nah!"

"Will you two shut your mouths?" Ratchet's voice rang.

Bumblebee rolled his optics. "We're just having a little fun, doc-bot."

Ratchet waved his fist at him. "Fun my aft! It's too late for that stupidity."

While Bumblebee was distracted, Jazz grabbed the tablet from the younger bot's hand, earning a whine.

"Hey!"

Jazz got off of him and sat back on the floor. Bumblebee pouted, leaning back and crossing his arms behind his head.

Bulkhead cleared his throat, hating the silence. "It's kind of early for boss-bot to turn in, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is come to think of it." Sari piped in, lifting a brow in wonder.

Bumblebee shrugged. "What do you expect? He's been examined by Ratchet all day. Why _wouldn't _he turn in this early?"

Sari then tilted her head. "What about Fernblade?"

Bulkhead scratched his head. "She's been in her room for most of the day, hasn't she?"

Bumblebee waved his head in a shoving fashion. "She's been working out lately. She probably overdid it today."

Ratchet shrugged, looking at that clock. "Well, I've been examining Optimus all day, as you had said, so I'm going to take a stasis-nap."

Bumblebee waved dramatically. "Bye!"

Sari and Bulkhead waved. "Good night." They said in union.

The old medic waved slightly, and then disappeared down the hallway. Jazz hooked his legs again, reading the tablet. Bumblebee was tempted to take it again, now with Ratchet was gone. But that thought left his processer when Sari leaned on his side, yawning. He smiled calmly, and leaned back, putting a hand on her back. He guessed that tonight she would be sleeping over instead of going back home. Of course there was nothing wrong with that. She was one of his best friends, and he was happy to have her over.

Bulkhead sighed, and stretched. "I'm gonna go recharge. See ya tomorrow."

Bumblebee waved, and Jazz smiled at him. "See ya."

Bulkhead waved, then slowly and clumsily started his way toward the hall. Jazz then stood up, and put the tablet in the box that was beside him.

"I'm gonna turn in, too. See ya, Bee."

Bumblebee waved, watching at the white bot followed Bulkhead down the hallway. He then turned his attention back to Sari. She had fallen asleep on his side, and breathed quietly. He smiled, and looked at the TV, not wanting to move around and wake her. Well, for Primus's sake, he might as well fall into recharge right here on the sofa. It's not like it hasn't been done before. So, he carefully settled down, sighing and watching as Superman lifted a huge boulder twice his size, and threw it at a bomb. His optics then felt heavy as his processer began to become fuzzy.

The last thing the yellow bot remembered was the sound of the bomb on the TV exploding and a flash of color before his systems went down, leaving him into recharge.


	4. Chapter 4

**You Caught My Optics Part Two**

By

Dragon with a Shotgun

**Hey, sorry for taking so long to update. I've had a hard time concentrating since I have so much going on. But, yeah, hope you liked the last chapter.** **I had trouble on it. If you didn't like it, sorry… I'm trying. ^.^'. Enjoy.**

**Chapter Four**

Fernblade groaned, rolling over in her sleep. Light began to shine into her optics, and she blinked slowly. She yawned, covering her optics with her arm to protect them from the shining light reflecting off of something shining on the other side of the room. The femme's body protested by being stiff when she tried to sit up. She stretched, groaning quietly. Then she rubbed her optics. She gazed around the room, not recognizing it. Then she remembered last night, and sighed.

She didn't see him beside her, and began to panic. Then she calmed down, knowing that he must have gotten up before her. Yawning again, she swung her legs over the side of the berth. A grunt erupted from her when her chest began to hurt. It felt as if it was 'bruised', as humans put it. She stood up and shook her body to get used to moving, guessing that it would help the stiff pain in her chest. She then walked to the door, when it opened, she then walked down the hall.

_At least I don't have to worry about tripping over some steps… _she thought cheerily. This morning she suddenly felt happy, cheerful.

She came to the living room to see Jazz and Bumblebee unsurprisingly playing another game, although it was a dance game. Bulkhead was working on a new painting. But… she couldn't quite tell what it was he was painting exactly. Sari must have not been at her home, since she was nowhere to be seen. Ratchet was sitting on the sofa, watching as the two bots as they struggled to keep up with the speed of the song they had chosen. Prowl was sitting beside ratchet on the other end of the sofa.

Fernblade smiled, and sighed quietly.

Prowl tilted his head, and smiled slightly at her. She rolled her optics at him. The ninja-bot had the audios as strong as an owl's. It was almost unbelievable. But, knowing that he's been trained in the martial arts and all of that, it wasn't surprising.

She waved at him, and he nodded lightly.

"Hey, guys."

Ratchet and Bulkhead waved at her in greeting, but the two in the game were too intrigued in watching the people on the screen to look back to her. But, they called back.

"Morning!"

She looked around for a moment, and then furrowed an optic ridge. "Where's Optimus?"

"He went for a drive. He should be back soon." Ratchet replied.

She nodded, and strolled to the back of the couch. She leaned over it, resting her arms on the back and leaning her chin on them. She crossed one leg behind the other, watching as Bumblebee was laughing at Jazz. The white bot was having trouble getting the beat down, since it was too fast for him to handle.

Fernblade then rested her chin on Prowl's head, surprising him for a moment, but he smiled and kept still. She poked his neck, earning a jerk, and him flicking his finger on her forehead without anyone noticing. She laughed, and noticed that he chuckled when Bumblebee suddenly fell backwards onto the floor on his aft. She giggled, and lifted her head.

"I'm going to get some fresh air." She said, partially to no one in particular.

When they all nodded, she smiled and went out the door. There was a gentle breeze, and it was refreshing as it blew through her systems. She then transformed, and growled when the pain in her chest throbbed again.

_I'll get Ratchet to take a look at it later… _Turning on her scan of her human rider, she began cruising off.

She calmly entered the highway, and suddenly regretted it. Traffic was horrible, with horns blaring, people shouting, and no one getting anywhere. A few minutes past as she ever so slowly followed the line of cars, mostly following where they went. She'd planned to drive down on patrol in downtown Detroit, but by the way the traffic was moving, she wasn't going to get anywhere.

_Jeez, back on Cybertron, there was never traffic like this. I might as well be walking. _And that was exactly what she was going to do, except that she remembered that Optimus didn't like it whenever one of the other did it. He said it caused panic among the humans. Speaking of Optimus, she wondered where he was. Maybe he was in a quiet place thinking about what had happened last night. Her spark felt as if it was on fire, though. She sighed, having enough of the traffic, and then turned off a road that she had come to. It led her down a slope, and into a very large and empty field. She didn't care about patrolling downtown now.

She then transformed back into her regular mode, rolling her shoulders to ease the aching pain. Taking a few deep breathes, she was about to call back for Ratchet, but then she stopped herself.

"Calm down, girl… easy… It's probably supposed to happen."

She remembered the interface she had with Optimus last night. Could the pain be the side effect from when their sparks merged? It must have been. What else could have caused this? So, she sighed and forced herself to ignore the throbbing pain in her chest.

Never in her life before she came to Earth had she thought that she'd ever meet e mech that she would do that with. It was almost… scary. But that crossed her mind a little late though… She wondered if he was thinking about her at that moment, wherever he was. She knew that he was a very deep thinker. That was why he got depressed at times, because he got into the bad side of situations. He was unsure about last night, thinking that something would go wrong. But, he'd forgotten about his worries pretty quick.

She groaned as she clutched her chest, stiffening when the pain rose to her head. What was going on? She shook her head, trying to clear it. But, then something on the ground caught her attention. She looked up to find what was making the shadow, and then gasped.

It was a jet of some sort. It was purple with blue markings, and was actually kind of familiar. She also saw a Decepticon logo on the side. Was that… Starscream? No, Starscream didn't have blue coloring. But if it wasn't Starscream, then who was it? Fernblade noticed that it was turning back around. It soared through the air, and then halted in air above the ground some ways away from her. She raised her arms to keep dust from flying into them. Suddenly the jet transformed.

"Well, well, well! Who do we have here?" the femme jet wondered aloud darkly.

Fernblade coughed, clearing dust from her throat. She then glared at the stranger. She did look like Starscream, but more feminine and with different colors.

"Who are you?" she asked.

The other femme smiled evilly. "I'm a friend."

Fernblade furrowed her optics ridges at her. "I don't think so."

The Decepticon glared at her, knowing that her act wasn't going to work. Fernblade flipped through her memory, wondering of any of the team had described a Decepticon like this one. Bu, she didn't remember anyone mentioning a Decepticon femme in Detroit. But, either way, a Decepticon was a Decepticon. No matter what they looked like or who they were.

The stranger then smiled deviously. Fernblade instantly knew that she didn't come down to talk.

"What do you want?"

"Oh, nothing in particular. There has been a lack of femmes here on this Primus-for-saking planet. I was just a bit bored."

Fernblade glared at her. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not in the mood to deal with a Con right now." She then turned away, now really comfortable in doing so, but listened carefully behind her. She began to walk away.

"Well, sorry to disappoint _you_, but I'm afraid I can't let you leave."

Fernblade gasped when a missile hit the ground in front of her, sending dust and debris flying.

"Slag!" she yelled, rubbing her optics. The dust cleared, but her optics stung from dust, pebbles, and smoke. Just as she had gotten her vision cleared, she was hit from behind by a strong force. Something pinned her to the ground, shoving her face into the grass.

"You don't have a choice but to 'deal' with it." The femme pressed her heel into Fernblade's lower back. Fernblade cried out as the sharp point dug into her armor. She tried to struggle, tried to do anything to get the Decepticon off, but whenever she moved, she feared hurting herself.

_Now I know how Optimus felt… _she thought guiltily to herself.

Slipstream smiled in amusement as the Autobot wriggled under her. Fernblade breathed hard, wore out. But suddenly, although she wasn't quite sure how, she slid her arms underneath herself and pushed herself up, and threw the Decepticon off of her.

Fernblade steadied her feet under her, and got into a battle stance, widening her stance. She let her optics burn into the femme, feeling her rage run through her systems. When the Decepticon got to her feet, Fernblade then sprinted toward her. She slipped her hands into her blades, and lunged into the air, spinning. She shot her foot out, catching her opponent in the side of the head, sending her tumbling to the ground, stunned. Fernblade then ran forward, kicking the Decepticon in the side, sending her rolling on the ground.

When Slipstream got to her feet, Fernblade kicked her knee into the Decepticon's abdomen. A yelp erupted from Slipstream. Then Fernblade grabbed her arm, and started to spin. The she threw her some ways across the field.

Fernblade sighed, and then locked her sights on the femme. She knew that if she let herself go all out, she would lose her senses, and not be able to focus. She sighed, and took confident steps forward. She let her blades rest at her sides, relaxing herself as she made her way toward the down femme in front of her. The Decepticon grunted, trying to rise to her feet as the Autobot surely got closer and closer.

Slipstream turned her head, and glared at Fernblade. She hated that she had been grounded by this femme. She was weak! Why hadn't she attacked her while she was on the ground and defenseless? Maybe she was playing smart and not making too quick of movements. But that was Starscream's side of her processer screaming, not her own. But she didn't care to ponder over that. Not while in the middle of a battle. She then spun around, and shot another missile at the Autobot.

Fernblade gasped quietly, and dropped to the ground. The missile grazed her forehead, plummeting to the ground behind her. The force of the explosion sent her shooting forward, tackling the femme to the ground. They rolled on the ground, grunting and yelling. Slipstream caught the Autobot in the chin with her fist, as did Fernblade punch the Decepticon in the neck.

Slipstream coughed, and jumped off of Fernblade. She grabbed her throat, rubbing the spot where it had been hit. She glared at Fernblade with piercing optics. Fernblade sat up, glaring back with equal rage.

She rubbed her chin, not taking her optics off of the Decepticon. She tried to stand, and watched as Slipstream did the same.

The Decepticon growled. "I'm going to take your spark for that!"

"Not if I turn you into a tin can first!" Fernblade shot back.

Slipstream shrieked, and shot multiple lasers at Fernblade. The Autobot dodged them, stepping backwards and skidding from left to right. The she took her blades, and swung them at two of the lasers that shot toward her. The blades and the shots collided, and sent them back toward Slipstream. The Decepticon screamed when one of the lasers her arm. She stumbled back, gripping the upper part above her elbow.

Fernblade glared at her, and watched as the Decepticon transformed, hovering in air in front of her. Fernblade awaited the Decepticon's next move. But, she then wished she hadn't. The jet suddenly shot toward Fernblade, and caught the Autobot in the abdomen with the sharp point of the front of her jet mode. She rammed the Autobot into a boulder, smashing it into rubble and then into a large pine tree. Fernblade's cry was cut off, and in pain, she went limp on the ground at the tree's base after the force hit her like a fret train and Slipstream transformed back into her regular mode.

Fernblade couldn't breathe, couldn't focus, or couldn't open her optics. She desperately tried to get to her feet, grabbing the tree's trunk and feeling the pain in her chest from earlier hit her hard. She gasped, and dropped back to the ground. She was stunned, and couldn't focus her sights on anything. She couldn't see Slipstream stalk toward her from behind.

"You're even weaker than I'd thought." The Decepticon sneered.

The Autobot whimpered, grabbing her abdomen. She looked at her hand. Although her vision was blurry, she could see blue liquid that dripped from her wound. She wanted to call her friends for help, but it hurt too much to move. She shakily turned her body so that she could see the Decepticon.

"That wasn't as good as I had hoped. Thinking that you were from the Elite Guard!"

Fernblade took a deep breath, looking the femme in the optics.

"I'm not from the Elite Guard!" She choked.

Slipstream glared at her. "Really? Then why were you with Sentinel Prime?"

"Why should I tell you?" she snapped, gasping when her wound stung. She put more pressure on it, trying to ease the pain but at the same time keep energon in her body.

The Decepticon lost her temper, lashing out with her foot and kicking Fernblade in the place where she was wounded. The Autobot let out a startled and pain filled scream, rolling over and curling into a ball. The pain rushed through her, hitting every nerve it seemed. At that point, she was too weak and too much in pain to turn back to the Decepticon.

Slipstream was about to kick her again and just lifted her foot when suddenly something hit her in the gut, sending her coughing. She slipped and fell backwards onto the ground. Fernblade let her leg go limp and leaned back on the tree. That kick only bought her a few seconds. She knew that it was probably pointless, and made the Decepticon even more raged.

She sighed, knowing that she was probably beat. She relaxed her body, feeling too exhausted to do anything else. Slipstream had gotten to her feet. She was now making her way back to the tree, her optics locked on the Autobot with a death-like glare. Fernblade wanted so badly to get up, to run at the most. She was too distracted to call the others for help now.

Slipstream growled, and this time lifted her arm, and pointed another missile at Fernblade. But she gasped when a wire wrapped around her arms, pinning them to her sides. She was jerked back, and swung into a tree, and then into the ground, and then into a boulder. She was pounded into multiple objects before finally the grapple released her, leaving her on the ground stunned.

Optimus glared at the Decepticon, balling his fists at his sides. Slipstream's optics widened when she saw that Prime, and transformed. But before she could get anywhere, he sprayed fire extinguisher liquid on her boosters, blocking the fire that would have made her blast off into air. Without the meanings of flight, she transformed, turning to glare at the mech.

Not saying a word, the Prime furrowed his gaze, but instead of the Decepticon attacking, she sprinted off through the trees. Apparently she could take on a femme, but not a mech full on after a battle. When the femme disappeared, Optimus turned back to Fernblade. He gasped, and hurriedly jogged to her, kneeling on one knee to examine her.

"Fern, it's alright. I'm here."

She was limp. Her optics were closed and she was motionless. Optimus's spark jumped as he placed a hand behind her head and lifted it off of the tree.

"Fern, come on! Don't do this to me!" he cried, shaking her shoulders.

She didn't do anything. He lifted his head that he'd placed on her side. He saw the energon, and began to panic. He took lifted his hand to the side of his head, and turned on his com-link.

"Ratchet! Fernblade's been attacked, and she doesn't look like she'd doing very good."

"_Alright, get her back to base and I'll take a look at her." _The medic's voice came back.

Optimus nodded, and transformed. He was hesitant of what to do without anyone there to help, but he shifted his alt-mode's doors into his arms, and carefully lifted her onto his trailer. He made sure she was secure on his trailer.

He didn't want to start speeding off, but he flicked on his lights and siren and drove onto the highway. Cars parted as the fire truck sped past them, he took the same road that she had taken to get to the place she'd met Slipstream, and in a few minutes later he pulled up into the warehouse parking lot.

Bumblebee and Prowl rushed out of the building, and ran around to Optimus's trailer. Prowl slid his arms under her shoulders, and Bumblebee grabbed her legs. Optimus transformed and helped them inside. They placed her on Ratchet's medical berth in med-bay. He snapped at the others to leave, and then quickly began to examine her.

The rest of the Autobots waited around the sofa. Bumblebee and Jazz didn't play the games, Bulkhead didn't go back to painting, nor did Prowl go to his room like he always did when something went wrong. Optimus sat on the end of the sofa, leaning over with his arms resting on his knees and staring with wide optics at the floor, not looking anyone in the eye. Sari had arrived shortly after Fernblade had left earlier that day. She was sitting with Bumblebee on the floor. Nobody looked at their leader, or even spoke to him. They saw the sheer fear in his optics and his body was tense. They wanted to say something in the scary silence, but no one said a word.

More than an hour went by, but no one was sure of how long exactly Ratchet had been working on Fernblade. It felt like it was all day though. Everyone was getting impatient, but they did nothing. Sari had tears slipping down her small face, and Bumblebee looked down at her.

"It's alright. She's gonna be okay, Sari." He said. But he was unsure in himself. He could see that everyone was in misery. He placed a hand on the techno-organic's back, feeling her sob.

Prowl was silent, looking at the floor. He let fear show in his expression, and felt hope swell in his chest at Bumblebee's words. He wasn't one to take the younger and more childish mech's advice, but at a time like this, he sure hoped that he was right.

"Right, Prowl?"

The ninja-bot looked up from his thoughts. He looked at Bumblebee, who was looking at him with desperate optics. He didn't say anything. He looked away from the yellow mech, letting his gaze fall on the floor again.

Another half hour when by and, finally, Ratchet stepped out from the doorway. He was wiping his hands with a white towel with blue liquid soaking it. His optics were dim from exhaustion and worry. Optimus stood up.

"Well?" he asked.

Ratchet sighed. "She's in bad shape, Prime. But, she will live. She was very lucky."

The Prime let out a great sigh of relief. The other Autobots still had depressed faces, but the tension in the room faded and now anger rose in the group.

"Who was the one that did this, Optimus?" Prowl asked.

"Slipstream," Optimus replied, sitting back down on the sofa.

Prowl nodded, relaxing his shoulders. Sari then perked up.

"Slipstream? Wasn't she one of Starscream's clones?" she asked.

The Autobots nodded, not looking at each other, knowing that all too well that she might have been bored and attacked Fernblade for the sheer fun of it. But they knew that it turned into rage after she got a taste of Fernblade's style. They knew all too well that Fernblade was a great fighter. She had trained with warrior class fighters before even arriving on Earth, and had watched as the team trained. But, apparently she was caught off-guard by a move or something.

By this point, any thought of Fernblade being hurt made the whole team enraged. Mentally, they all wanted to give Slipstream a piece of their minds. But, they all knew that this was not a good time to be thinking about taking revenge on the Decepticon. For now, they needed to focus on watching over Fernblade.

The Optimus looked at Ratchet. "Is she up right now?"

The older bot shook his head. "She's going to be out for a while, Prime. Even if she did wake up, she'd be too weak to speak."

The Prime nodded in understanding. He looked at his team, seeing that they were all looking at the ground with stern faces, particularly Prowl. Optimus had noticed lately that prowl and Fernblade had been close. He knew that they hung out with each other often, and that Prowl cared deeply about his sparkmate.

Then he remembered that he still hadn't told them about them _being _sparkmates. But, he chose to not say anything. Instead, he walked toward med-bay, leaving the others in the living room. Ratchet had a room to operate, the med-bay, and a berth in the living room for simple procedures. Optimus walked into med-bay, and his optics grew dim.

Fernblade was patched up and had bandages wrapped around her abdomen. The bandages had wet blue energon soaking them, and some energon was on the floor. The operation must have been difficult. The sight of her like that made his spark throb, and he took a deep breath. H walked slowly to the stool sitting by the berth. He sat down, and looked at her hand. A flashback went through his processer. That was the same hand he took when he took her flying that night not so long ago.

He slipped her small hand into his, and rubbing the top of it with his other hand. He wished so badly that she could grab his hand back. He was scared to death when he'd seen her in the field after he ran Slipstream off, and had to keep himself from chasing after her and hunting her down. Primus knows what he would have done if Fernblade hadn't made it. If Fernblade had went offline, he would do more than just hunt Slipstream down and turn her in to the Elite Guard. In his rage, he would most likely have killed her.

But the Prime didn't want to think about that right now. He only wanted think about him and her together. He only wanted to think about her being happy and alive.


	5. Chapter 5

**You Caught My Optics Part Two**

By

Dragon with a Shotgun

**Hey, peeps! I've been waiting to get to this chapter for a while! Enjoy!**

**Spark Bond Thoughts: **_**Bold Italicized**_

**Chapter Five**

Fernblade settled the mirror, sighing in relief when it didn't fall back down. She clapped her hands together, and then looked up and frowned. She looked to her left at the mech bent over working on the berth.

"Hey, Chief, can ya give me a lift?"

Optimus smiled at her over his shoulder, and stood up. "Sure, where do you need to get to?"

She pointed up at the roof. He lifted his gaze up and saw a loose wire hanging down from the ceiling. He nodded and walked over to Fernblade, lowering a hand. She placed her foot in it and he pushed her up, she stepped onto his shoulders and carefully placed the wire back into the ceiling so that no one could run into it. Once done, he lowered her to the ground.

"Thanks," she said, hugging him.

He hugged her back. "No problem."

They had been working on Optimus's room for more than an hour now, and were making some head work on it. Fernblade and Optimus had decided that she would stay in his room now that they were sparkmates, since it would be odd to be sparkmates but have different rooms. They were working on making the berth bigger, and tidying everything up. It had been a little longer than a week since the day she had encountered Slipstream. Since then she'd made a full recovery. She had also spoke to Ratchet about her chest pains, but when he examined her, he found nothing wrong with her. So, even though she'd been having a few pains every now and then, she'd been ignoring them.

Optimus and Fernblade had also told them about them going to be sparkmates. But they hadn't said anything about them interfacing. They didn't want to give them that news just yet. It would have been too big of a shock right after hearing that they were 'thinking' about becoming sparkmates. Cybertronians weren't sparkmates until they merged their sparks, which made the bond. So, they told them that they were 'thinking' about it so that the others wouldn't freak out.

Optimus sighed, rubbing his head. "Alright, what now?"

Fernblade walked forward and crossed her arms and put her weight on one leg while she studied the room for a moment. Optimus tilted his head in amusement at her playful thinking pose.

She was quiet, and then she turned her head. "Well, we could add a little something to it."

He chuckled. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

She turned on her heel. "For one, adding a bit of color to it."

"Color?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Why? None of the others' rooms are 'colored'."

Fernblade smiled at him playfully and walked toward him. "Well, because this femme isn't one of the 'others'."

"Really?" he asked, smiling at her with the same tone.

"Uh-huh! I am your 'sparkmate'. Not an 'other'." She stated, wrapping her arms around his neck. "And I am a femme, so I need at least a bit of something to brighten my life."

He smiled, slipping his hands down her back. "Ah, so, what color are you thinking about?"

She grinned and opened her mouth to speak.

"But it better not be pink."

She then laughed. "No, I'm not a pink fan."

He lifted an optics ridge at her, smiling. "Really? Then what is your favorite color?"

She smiled at him amusingly, one optic ridge lifted and one furrowed. He knew that smile. It was one she used whenever she had an idea or was about to say something that was not about to surprise him.

"Actually, I'm kind of a red and blue gal." she said, leaning against his chest.

He let out a strong laughed, shaking his head. "Why am I not surprised?"

She grinned and kissed him on the cheek. He then patted her back.

"Alright, so you want it red and blue?"

She giggled, and spoke in a teasing tone. "I don't know… maybe."

He rolled his optics. "Well, you better make up your mind sometime."

Fernblade shrugged and let go of him. He smiled and went toward the door.

"Well, I'm going to see what the others are doing." He informed, opening the door. She wiggled her fingers at him.

"See ya," she sighed dramatically, waving her hand in a way that a woman would when she was upset.

He chuckled and left the room. She rolled her optics and turned to the computer in the corner of the room. She walked toward it and typed in ideas for a bedroom. She'd heard Sari mention something about it a while back, and decided that she'd try it. She went through random designs set in the site. Some were solid white with some colored designs, some were darker colors with white designs, and some were completely random with rainbows and blacks and other colors. She saw a few that she liked, and a few that she didn't. But she got dizzy from looking at the computer, and logged off the site. She turned away from the computer to get the colors out of her optics.

She looked at the mirror as she passed, and halted to a stop to examine herself out of habit. She posed in random ways just for the sake of it, but then blinked. She furrowed her optic ridges at her reflection, turning so that she could see herself from the side. She noticed that her chest seemed… broader? Bulkier? She couldn't tell. Something just didn't seem… right. She placed a hand on her chest, studying herself. Was she imagining this? She wondered if her chest had always been like this.

She also noticed something else that she hadn't before, or had noticed and just hadn't cared about. Her spark felt like it was warm and fuzzy. It felt as if it wasn't alone in her chest, like something that hadn't been in her chest before was there now. Now that she paid attention to it, she could feel a gentle pain. It wasn't exactly a pain, more like something uncomfortable.

Suddenly Optimus came through the door, wearing a happy smile. She smiled back at him briefly, but then looked back at her reflection.

He tilted his head at her. "Are you alright?"

She frowned. "Optimus, when did we have that interface?" she asked, not looking at him.

He blinked at her in confusion, and shrugged. "A few days ago, I think. Why?"

She looked back at him, many questions running through her mind. He stared back at her, frozen in the spot he paused at when she asked him the question. They stared at each other for a while, studying each other.

She then looked back at her reflection, letting her hands rest at her sides. "A few days ago?"

He nodded, now taking a few steps and was at her side. "Yes. Why? Is there something wrong?"

She didn't reply instantly, instead she stared in wonder at her reflection. He put a hand on her shoulder.

"Fern?"

She looked back at him. "Optimus, do you notice anything… different about me?"

He looked her up and down, and shrugged. "Not really, why? What is it, Fern?"

She put her hands on her chest again. Then the Prime knew what she was talking about. Her chest looked a bit bulged out, as if it was swollen. He frowned.

"Do you think we need to talk to Ratchet?" he asked quietly.

She gently shrugged, not knowing what to say. But then after a long moment, she looked back at him.

"I'll be right back."

He nodded, and she left the room.

Fernblade went to her old room upstairs, and was happy that no one was up there. She looked at the drawers on the other side of the room, and opened the top one. There was a small scanner with a screen on the front of it. She had accidently left it in the room earlier when she was moving some of her stuff to Optimus's room. She scanned her upper body, waited for a few minutes, and then looked at the results. When she saw what the scanner said, she gasped. A quiet _tang _rang in the room as the scanner hit the floor. She put her hands on her chest again, and a small but sure smile spread over her face.

Optimus was sitting on the berth waiting for Fernblade to come back. He was beginning to worry about her, and was scared that something was wrong. He tapped his fingers on his thigh, getting impatient. But he jumped in surprise when the door suddenly opened and she walked in. he sighed, and stood up.

"What's going on, Fern?" he said, if not a little panic in his voice.

Fernblade stopped in front of him, a smile on her face. "Optimus… I'm expecting."

He stared at her in confusion. "What do you mean 'expecting'? Are you going to be sick or something?"

She giggled, shaking her head. He then groaned. "Don't tell me. You're going insane, aren't you?"

Fernblade laughed and shook her head. He stared at her with seriousness. He stood there, crossing his arms and staring at her with questioning optics. But, then, it started to sink in that she meant a different 'expecting'. His processer suddenly started to scramble to pick up reality.

His arms started to shakily unfold. He stared at her in shock, and his jaw began to drop.

"You m-mean that… you are 'expecting' expecting?" he asked in a choked voice.

She grinned, and nodded. She watched as he suddenly went blank, sinking onto the berth. He blinked in shock, not looking at anything in particular. Fernblade wrapped her arms around his neck, making them both fall backwards on the berth.

"Optimus, we're going to have a sparkling!" she cried happily.

The Prime was limp on the berth with her on him, his processer still trying to come back into the real world. They were going to have a sparkling, a _sparkling_! Oh Primus! She was happily hugging him and his mind was elsewhere and his body was just sitting her like a dumbfounded idiot!

Optimus shook his head, and abruptly sat up, prying her off of him and planting his hands on her shoulders.

"W-we're going to have a s-sparkling? You and m-me?" he stuttered, not having a good grip on life.

Fernblade nodded. "Yes, you and me! Can you believe it?!"

He shook his head lightly. "No," he squeaked, "I can't."

The femme laughed and cupped her hands around his face. "Earth to Prime, Earth to Prime! You better believe it!"

Optimus suddenly found himself, and began to laugh. He wrapped his arms around her and stood up. They cried with joy as they twirled in the room, hugging, kissing, and laughing. They were both lost in their own world now, not caring whether they were on Earth, Cybertron, or on any planet in any galaxy for that matter.

They stopped spinning and were staring at each other optic to optic. Optimus then chuckled, not able to stop smiling.

"Okay, now we have no choice but to tell the others."

She nodded. "I think you're right."

They laughed, and rushed out the door. She stopped in front of him, and put a finger up to her lips, and smiled. He got it and cleared his throat. They calmly walked to the doorway, stopping at the entrance to the living room. All of the others were around the TV, watching a wrestling show. It was quite surprising that Bumblebee and Jazz weren't playing a game, but at that moment, the sparkmates weren't focused on that.

When they had spark merged, they had given each other a piece of their sparks. When Cybertronians spark bonded, they always had a piece of each other in their sparks. Since then, Optimus and Fernblade had been able to send each other their thoughts either when they were far away, or when they were together and didn't want anyone else to hear their conversations.

_**But how do we tell them? **_Optimus asked in his thoughts.

_**What do you mean? **_

_**I mean how are we going to tell them that we are going to have a sparkling without them freaking out?**_

Fernblade smiled at him. _**Don't worry, Chief. I got this.**_

Optimus smiled, and rested his hand on Fernblade's shoulder, clearing his throat very loudly to get everyone's attention.

"Everyone, we have some news that you all need to know."

They all looked back at the couple. Ratchet muted the TV so that Bumblebee wouldn't get distracted. Once everyone's attention was on them, Fernblade smiled confidently, but her mind was saying different.

_**Oh, thanks! I was kind of going to get their attention myself, Prime.**_

He smiled inwardly. _**Well, now's your time to shine. They are looking at us now.**_

The femme nodded at the group, and took a deep breath. She thought of how to say it in a matter of milliseconds.

"Everyone, what would you think if I told you that you mechs were all going to be uncles and Sari an aunt?"

The team looked at each other in confusion, and back at her. Ratchet folded his arms across his chest.

"What do you mean by that?"

The couple didn't say anything. They wanted to let the question sink in their processers. The rest of the team stared at them questioningly. Then Sari gasped.

"You're going to have a baby?" she asked, jumping up and down.

Fernblade and Optimus nodded. Ratchet's optics widened until they looked as if they would pop. Prowl, Bumblebee, Jazz, and Bulkhead's jaws hung. The couple stood there for a long moment, waiting for the team's response.

Suddenly the whole team was clapping and happily congratulating them, surrounding them and hugging them. Ratchet was still wide-eyed.

"When did you find out?" he asked.

Optimus chuckled. "Just a minute ago."

The older bot blinked at them, and then smiled. "Well, that could explain why your chest was hurting a few days ago and since."

Fernblade nodded. "It seems like that's the reason."

Cybertronian femmes didn't have the same way of creating a 'baby' as a human woman. For Cybertronian femmes, the sparkling is formed in the chest closer to the spark, where it can get most of the richer energon it needs. Also it being closer to the spark, the femme could transform into her alt-mode if she needed to without the fear of hurting the sparkling or herself.

Ratchet insisted on checking on the developing sparkling. He said that the beating she took a few days earlier could have had an effect on the sparkling's development, and in word to make sure that it was healthy, he wanted to take a scan of her chest. So she lied on the berth and let the medic press the flat scanner against her chest. It worked similarly to those the humans used when a doctor looks at the baby on a screen before it is born, except that this was in color, and a second later, a picture on the screen began to form on the large screen. The rest of the Autobots looked anxiously as the picture on the screen became clearer. Then they saw a small orb beside her spark. It was a darker blue than Fernblade's spark, and was a bit smaller.

Ratchet smiled in relief. "The sparkling is healthy. I don't see any dents or scratches or anything that could affect the sparkling's health or yours."

Fernblade smiled, and let Ratchet turn off the screen before she sat up, looking back at Optimus.

"Well, I wouldn't be a bit surprised, speaking of who the father is."

Optimus chuckled nervously. _**Gee, thanks a lot.**_

She laughed. _**No problem.**_

_**I was kind of being sarcastic. **_The Prime thought back.

She crossed her legs. _**Well, that's tough love, I guess.**_

He held in a laugh, and cleared his throat. "Well, that's great news, Ratchet."

The medic then placed a hand on Fernblade's shoulder. "But I have to tell you this, now. You can't be doing anything too active for the safety of the young one. It will take a few months, if not more for your sparkling to develop. So I'd advise you to stay inside the plant, whether if it's in your room or in the living room. But you have to stay around the base."

Fernblade sighed at the medic's words, but nodded in understanding. "Yes, Ratchet, I'll stay inside. But does it have to be until the sparkling is fully developed?"

The older bot shook his head. "Well, not until it is fully developed. Once it's grown enough to allow you to withstand some hits. You need to wait until the sparkling is grown and developed at the right stage."

Optimus then crossed his arms. "But what if she has to deliver unexpectedly?"

"Good point, Prime." Ratchet then looked at Fernblade. "So that means that you can go outside, but you can't go too far from base in risk of not able to deliver near home."

The femme nodded, smiling as she placed a hand on her chest. "Now we just need to plan some names."

The Prime smiled affectionately at his sparkmate. Now that they had more to think about than just Detroit, he hoped that this wouldn't distract him from emergency calls when he went out. It also dawned on him that she wouldn't be able to join him and the team when they left on a call. But they discussed about it, though. Ratchet said that he'd stay at the base to monitor Fernblade's condition and the sparkling's. That news made Optimus feel a bit better about leaving the base.

"So it's settled. Ratchet stays at base with Fern when we leave on a call. If it's possible someone stays with them."

"I'll do it." Prowl volunteered.

Bumblebee frowned at him. "Why do you want to?"

"I am better at predicting danger and I am able to alert all of you if something is happening without the intruder or the threat knowing." Prowl replied simply.

Jazz then raised his head. "I'll stick around too, is that's okay with Prowler, here and Fern."

Prowl and Fernblade nodded in union. She smiled, and rested a hand on Prowl's shoulder. "Thanks, guys, that's really appreciated."

The ninja-bots nodded, smiling lightly at her. Optimus then unfolded his arms.

"We also need to be on guard more. We already know Slipstream is out there, so Starscream should be around as well, knowing that they are linked somehow."

"And that Starscream is here, Megatron must still be at large somewhere on Earth or a nearby planet." Jazz added, following the idea.

"So, don't you think we need to alert the Elite Guard?" Bulkhead suggested.

Fernblade shook her head. "No, we will only do that if we absolutely have to."

Optimus nodded. "That's right. If we alert them now, they will most likely come and take Fern, and we wouldn't see her until the sparkling is born and the threat of any Decepticons in the galaxy are exterminated."

"But that could take more than one or two years." Bumblebee stated.

The Prime furrowed his optic ridges. "Exactly."

"So telling the Elite Guard is out of the question." Ratchet declared.

Fernblade sighed in relief. "I would hate to not see y'all for more than two years."

Optimus wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I wouldn't let them take you for that long, anyway."

She smiled, taking his hand in hers. The group was quiet for a while, with none of them knowing what to say first. Suddenly, Prowl chuckled, causing everybody to look at him questioningly.

"What is it, Prowl?" Fernblade asked.

The ninja-bot didn't say anything for a moment, but when he did, a smile spread over his face.

"I was just thinking that in a few months, we are going to have to go through the same process as when Optimus was turned into a sparkling himself."

The Prime then chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. The whole rest of the group started to laugh in amusement at the thought.

"Well," Fernblade said with a sigh. "At least I'll know how to handle parenting when the time comes."

Optimus groaned, covering his optics with his hand in embarrassment. Suddenly a call on the radio caught the group's attention.

"_Attention all units! A set of apartments have caught on fire during a celebration in downtown Detroit! All departments needed on scene!"_

The Autobots looked at each other in disappointment. Fernblade sighed, and gave Optimus a caring smile.

"Go get 'em, Chief." She said.

Optimus sighed, smiling at his sparkmate, and then looked at the team. "Alright, Autobots, let's roll out."

The team nodded as their leader led the way to the living room and outside the warehouse. Prowl waved at Jazz.

"Go on, I got this."

Jazz lifted an optics ridge. "Ya sure, Prowler?"

The ninja-bot nodded, watching as the white mech transformed and drove after the others with their sirens and lights blaring and flashing. Prowl entered the warehouse again, returning to his new job to guard the base while the team was out on a call.


	6. Chapter 6

**You Caught My Optics Part Two**

By

Dragon with a Shotgun

**Yes! Optimus used to be a sparkling, now he's going to have one! :3 I thought that it would be kind of ironic, especially for him. XD Hope you enjoyed the last one, I had a ball writing it for whatever reason. I am thinking about putting more chapters in this story than the first one, because I know that my limit on ten chapters is kind of flunking, so, yeah, I'm adding more chapters to this one. I'm taking up your time, sorry! Enjoy! **

**Chapter Six**

"Okay, if it was a girl, what do you think of Blaze?"

Sari shook her head. "I don't know. It's kind of plain, is it?""

The femme furrowed an optic ridge. "Well, I'm not going for anything big, Sari."

The techno-organic crossed her arms. Sari was trying to help plan baby names for the coming sparkling. They were in Optimus's, or hers and his, room. She was sitting on the berth crossed-legged with Sari in front of her.

"But Optimus is the dad."

"So?" Fernblade blinked at her.

"So, he's a _Prime_. The sparkling's gonna have to have an important name."

Fernblade sighed, and shook her head, giving the teenager a stern look. "But him being a Prime doesn't make a difference of what the name is."

Sari rolled her eyes, putting her hands on her hips. "Okay, Blaze isn't that bad…"

Fernblade sighed, placing a hand on her chest. When she had first found out that she was going to have a sparkling, she was overjoyed. But now that three days had passed, she wasn't so sure about it. If anything, she was almost scared.

She'd seen friends of hers on Cybertron go into 'labor', as humans referred it, and it looked very painful. In order to take a sparkling out of a femme, the medic would have to open her chest, which wasn't bad, but still hurt with having a growing sparkling inside her for so long for around five months. That was shorter than humans, but the way the developing sparkling was in a different place in the body affected the time limit of delivery. Once opened, the medic would have to separate the sparkling from the mother, but the problem was that, in Cybertronians a sparkling was connected to the spark itself by a few tube-like wires similar to the cord connecting the human baby to the mother. It was a dangerous and risky operation to deliver a sparkling, for both the mother and sparkling.

Fernblade's mother had gone offline delivering her. The medic was inexperienced, and had accidently broken a tube connected from her to the spark, sending a piece of metal into her spark. Fernblade hadn't known how her mother had died until her father told her when she was a teenager.

Fernblade had learned how the sparklings were delivered when she was in 'school', or in academy. But it hadn't dawned on her that she'd be experiencing it in her life at all. So thinking about how she was going to have to go through it was frightening to her. But she knew that she had no choice.

"Fern?"

She snapped her head back to the techno-organic. "What?"

"Ya know what I had just thought of?"

"What?"

"When humans get married, the father has to meet the man before they get married." Sari said, crossing her arms. "Does your dad know about you and Optimus already being sparkmates?"

Fernblade stared at her for a moment lost in thought. She hadn't seen her father in eons, nor heard from him. She was so busy working on Sentinel's ship that she hadn't had time to contact him. But, now that she was on Earth, and that she had no choice but to stay at base, she might have that time.

"No." she replied. "I haven't spoken to him in so long."

Sari tilted her head. "You haven't?"

Fernblade shook her head. The teenager blinked at her, and then smiled.

"What was his name?"

"Stampede," the femme replied.

Sari laughed. "Stampede? Why was he called that?"

Fernblade smiled, shaking her head. "I have no idea. I've heard that he used it when he was in the war before he met my mother." Sari's giggling turned into laughter as she fell backwards onto the berth. Fernblade laughed with her.

"Come on, I'm going to try something." She giggled and then swung her feet over the berth before standing up, starting for the door. Sari jumped off the berth and ran after her. They walked down the hall and into the living room. No one was in the room, but Ratchet told her earlier that he was going to drive around the base a few times. Jazz was somewhere either in his room or outside with him. The rest of the team had gone on a police chase after hearing about a robbery up in town. Since then it had been quiet.

Fernblade strolled over to the big computer. Even though she could have used the computer in her and Optimus's room, she preferred to use this one due to having more signal.

She typed in a few codes, and then an image popped up. It was a Cybertronian site with the images and names of mechs that worked back on Cybertron. Ratchet had installed it when they had fixed the warehouse up. Knowing that her father's record would have to be in it, she searched her father's name. The site pulled up many Stampedes, but she knew the picture of her father when her optics barely even brushed over the image.

She clicked on the file, hearing Sari climb up on the desk beside the keyboard. The teenager stared curiously at the image of Fernblade's father, and giggled.

"He's got a big head."

Fernblade laughed. "Yeah, he always did. I sometimes called him Big Daddy for that. Though with a head like that, he wasn't too bright."

"He wasn't?" Sari asked.

She shook her head. "He was always running into something and hitting his head. He was a protective one though. Every time something happened to me, he turned from a gentle giant to a violent bot. He was a good mech though, from what I remember."

Sari smiled at her. "I bet, so what are you going to do?"

"Hold on a second."

Fernblade glided her fingers across the keyboard. The screen went black for a moment, then after a few minutes, a face popped up on the screen. The mech was sand-colored with small bright blue optics. His armor was faded, though as if he'd aged.

"Hello, Stampede speaking." He spoke in a gruff voice.

Fernblade blinked at him for a moment, and then swallowed. She knew that country voice anywhere. "Daddy?"

Stampede stared at them through the screen for a long moment, and then his jaw hung. "Fern?"

Fernblade smiled at him. "Hey, dad! It's me!"

"Darlin', where are you? I haven't seen you in so long!"

She nodded, an energon tear slipping out of her eye. "I'm on Earth, dad. I live here."

The mech's optics widened. "Earth?! Why are you livin' on Earth?"

Fernblade took a deep breath, and smiled. "Dad, this is going to be a very long story. You might want to sit down somewhere."

So after introducing her father to Sari, she explained to her father what had happened, from when Sentinel had sent her to Earth to her deciding to live on the planet. She told him about her staying with Optimus's team, but not about her and Optimus becoming sparkmates or expecting a sparkling yet. He nodded as she went through the story, letting her know he was listening. After the long explanation, she sighed heavily.

He was quiet for a moment, and then smiled. "Well, that's quite a tale. I had no idea you were still thinking 'bout me."

Fernblade smiled. "I'm still thinking about you, dad."

He smiled affectionately, and put his large hand on the screen. Fernblade remembered how big that hand was, and so wished she could touch it. Stampede was a very big bot, maybe four inches taller than Sentinel Prime. He was intimidating to any mech that he encountered, especially to young bots that talked to her when she was younger.

"I'm glad to hear it. So how's your life been on Earth, darlin'?"

She laughed hysterically for a moment, rubbing the back of her neck. Sari elbowed her arm, smiling encouragingly. Fernblade sighed heavily.

"Dad, this is going to probably make you shut down for a while, but… me and Optimus are sparkmates," At this his expression looked surprised. "… And I'm expecting a sparkling…"

Stampede suddenly coughed, almost falling out of his seat on the desk. Fernblade feared that he might have blown a fuse until he looked back at her with a large goofy grin. She remembered that smile anywhere. He made it whenever he was excited or had gotten great news about something.

"You mean that I'm gonna be a granddaddy?" he asked.

She smiled nervously. "Yeah, you're gonna be a granddad."

She and Sari saw him sigh, and look at them with a new expression. "I want to see Optimus Prime whenever he is available."

Fernblade nodded. "He's on a call right now, but-,"

Suddenly a loud horn blared in the building, causing Fernblade, Sari, and even Stampede to jump. They looked toward the doorway at the rest of the group. Optimus waved at Fernblade smiling, but he looked quite tired from the police chase. She smiled back at him and motioned with her hand.

"But he's back now, dad."

The Prime's optics widened when he'd gotten to her side. "Dad?"

Stampede nodded at him from the screen. "That's right, I'm her daddy."

Optimus blinked for a moment, and looked at Fernblade. She smiled and motioned toward the screen.

"Optimus, this is my dad, Stampede."

The sand-colored mech in the screen nodded to the Prime. "Nice to meet ya."

The red and blue mech shakily nodded back. "It's nice to meet you too, sir."

Fernblade then typed a few keys and the screen went black. But in a few seconds a physical scan of a large mech appeared next to them. Optimus yelped, jumping back and falling back on his rear. He shook his head, and gaped wide-eyed at the huge sand-colored mech standing there in front of them. The mech towered over everybody in the room, and the others jumped at the size of him.

"Hey, dad, I put you on scan mode." Fernblade informed.

Stampede smiled, and looked at the shocked red and blue bot on the ground. The scan mode allowed the people you see to be physical so that you could touch them and they could touch you. At that moment in his room, he was looking at the whole group of people on the other side. After Fernblade had introduced everybody Stampede nodded to everyone. They all nodded back.

"So, you are Optimus Prime." Stampede said, folding his arms over his chest.

Optimus smiled warily, nodding. "Uh, yes, sir!"

There was a short silence. "You're a mite smaller than I'd thought." He said, tilting his head.

Fernblade laughed. "Everyone's a mite smaller than you think, dad."

He laughed a loud and deep laugh. Optimus tried to scramble to get to his feet, but his hand was grabbed in a firm grip and he was jerked quite forcibly onto his feet as if he was a ragdoll. One he was standing he had to strain his neck to look at Fernblade's father, and stepped back. She laughed, and sneakily took a step back.

Stampede nodded, giving him a serious frown. "I trust you're taking care of my little darlin', right, Prime?"

The Prime nodded frantically. "Yes, of course, sir."

The father stared at him, studying. A few moments passed before he chuckled. "Now stop that 'sir' business! You can call me 'Dad' for now on."

"Um… yes, si- I mean dad." Optimus cleared his throat, trying to smile at the much bigger mech. Fernblade could tell he was trying not to be worried, but she knew that meeting her father for the first time was odd, especially since her father was almost two times bigger than him.

Bumblebee stifled a laugh behind them, but was elbowed by Prowl. He frowned and rolled his optics, and then turned his attention back to the family.

"Now there! With that settled, how has your relationship been? Any complications?"

The sparkmates looked at each other for a moment, and then shook their heads.

"No, why?" they asked in union.

The older bot chuckled and shook his head. "Nothing, you two just remind me of me and Emerald."

"Emerald?" Optimus blurted curiously.

Fernblade slid her arm around his side in a small hug. "She was my mother."

The Prime gazed into her optics in a searching manner, but she didn't even have to tell him. He nodded, and smiled weakly. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, kissing her on the forehead before looking back at Stampede.

Stampede held up his hands and looked through them as if he was taking a picture. "Ah, perfect memory pic. I'll have to add that to my favorites."

Fernblade laughed at her father, and leaned into Optimus's side. She could feel the tension of nervousness from earlier had faded into friendly confidence. She couldn't blame him for being scared of her dad for the first meeting. Her father was huge! She could sit on his knee like a little kid right now if she wanted to. When she was little, she used to balance on his knees whenever she sat in his lap. She missed those times. They used to be so close. They had always done things together. He was a medic in his prime days, and was always working on someone's body or replacing a body part. She was his little helper, always at his side and keeping the patient happy and earning phrases from them and Stampede.

But now those were only sweet memories. Now she had new memories to make. But her thoughts were interrupted by her father's voice.

"Well, I really hate to leave, darlin'." Stampede sighed. "But I've gotten myself a new job with watching over prisoners at the Hold."

Fernblade smiled weakly. "Okay, daddy."

She stepped out from Optimus's arm, and wrapped her arms around her father's wait. His long, huge arms covered her small frame. She felt and heard him emit a long, deep, and sad sigh. She giggled when he poked her side with a large, sneaky finger.

He then tilted her chin up, smiling affectionately at her. Then he stood up straighter and walked around her, and stood in front of the young Prime, who resisted the urge to step back. He leaned back to look his 'father-in-law' in the optics.

"And if I find that she is hurt in any way at all," he said, his tone low in warning, "I will hunt you down, and torture you until Primus shows mercy on you!"

Optimus gulped, and nodded frantically. But a moment later his expression became more confident and he stood straighter. He now stood to Stampede's neck. Stampede looked down on him with stern optics.

"I won't let anything happen to your daughter, my sparkmate, or my future sparkling. I will lay my spark on the line to protect them. If anything does happen, you can ensure that I will do everything, and I mean _everything _to keep them safe."

Stampede blinked slowly at him, his processer turning. His optics glowed in wonder as he studied his daughter's sparkmate. He had never had a younger bot stand up to him before. Well, this young mech wasn't standing up to him, to say. He was ensuring his strength to protect Fernblade. And, that made Stampede proud to call him his son-in-law. It showed courage, and trust.

He stared at the young Prime for a last moment before surprising him by picking him up off his feet in an almost-too-tight hug. Optimus gasped, flailing his feet when they left the ground.

"Good! Cuz' I'd hate to have to hurt my own son-in-law!"

Optimus tried to laugh, but it came out as a tiny squeak. His chest felt like it was being crushed! He patted the mech's side.

Fernblade giggled when her father dropped the Prime, and when Optimus hit the ground, he bent over, grabbing his chest with both arms. She stepped up to his side, patting his back.

"Now you know where I got my grip from."

"Like father, like daughter!" Stampede patted Optimus's back quite hard, making the young bot straighten abruptly, and his optics wide in shock.

Stampede waved at the others, who all waved back. Ratchet nodded at him.

"Don't worry. I'll be watching over her until the sparkling is born. And when it is, we will alert you."

The father nodded, and turned to Fernblade. He kissed her on the forehead, smiling almost in a silly way. He smiled at Optimus. The young Prime smiled meekly and waved at him.

Then Stampede was gone.

Fernblade turned to Optimus, who was bent over gripping his chest with his arms while catching his breath. She giggled and patted his back ever so gently, although she received a jerk.

"Sorry, he's a big guy."

Optimus waited before choking out, "Yeah, I've noticed."

The rest of the team burst out laughing. Fernblade shook her head knowingly as he straightened and rolled his back. Bumblebee came up.

"That was your dad, huh?"

She nodded. The yellow mech grinned. "Jeez, but you're not much bigger than I am, though!"

Fernblade's optics narrowed, her mouth curving on one end. Bumblebee blinked at her.

"Size doesn't matter, though, does it, bot?" she pointed out, referring to his size.

He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. Bumblebee knew his place in the group. He might be an adult, but he was still a young bot that was a lot smaller than most bots. He knew it; he just liked to tease others about it. Having been satisfied, she grabbed Optimus's arm.

"Come on, we need to get those tense joints working again."

He looked at her in curiosity for the briefest of moments, and nodded meekly in understanding. She waved to the others before leading their leader down the hall and into their room. The room was cooler than when it had been before he left, and it was actually kind of nice. He grunted when she put pressure on his shoulder and bent him onto the berth into sitting position. He shot her a confused expression saying, 'What are you doing?' In return, she smiled and shifted her weight on one leg.

She twirled her finger. _**Turn around and lay down.**_

_**Why?**_

_**Because I know from the look of your condition when you came you were exhausted, and then having to meet my dad was a bit more tiring. So, lie down, and turn over.**_

Optimus tilted his head. _**Why are we talking in our minds?**_

She shrugged. _**It helps me think in a way, so to say.**_

The Prime furrowed his optic ridges questioningly, but not wanting to argue with the femme impatiently waiting for him to obey her, he sighed and lay down, and turned over onto his stomach. He rested his chin on his arms, trying to relax his tense body. The chase from earlier took a lot from him. He had to help Bumblebee after he had gotten stuck in cement that was not dry yet on the road, and after that he had to think of a way to apologize to the construction workers that were infuriated by the incident. Then they had to try to catch the robber. Bulkhead had gone the wrong way and Optimus had to correct his course through com-link, which distracted him from his driving and he spun out of control. That chase was one of the worst he'd dealt with.

He gasped when a sudden weight was on his lower back. He was fixing to try to struggle to get it off when he realized who it was on him. He tilted his head to look up at her.

_**Easy, Chief, it's just me.**_

Her voice sounded so soothing in his processer. It almost commanded his body to sink into the berth it seemed. He wondered if he would actually fall through the berth at all. He had always liked the sound of her voice. She could change the depth of it to make it quiet to blaring, but most of the time it was calm and quiet. It reminded him of humming or the soothing music that Prowl sometimes listened to during meditation.

Then there was a new sensation. Her hands slowly and gently glided on his armor, calm and soothing. He sighed heavily, shuddering a little. The feeling went through his back, softly calming his nerve wirings. She reached under his armor, rubbing his protoform shoulders. He couldn't suppress the moan that slid from his throat, and his optics closed.

"See, now? This isn't so bad, isn't it?"

He let out a small chuckle. "No kidding…"

She giggled, putting a bit more pressure on his lower back. He rolled his shoulders with the movement, feeling his tension dissolve completely. She slowly made her way up to his shoulders, earning a pleased growl from him. She laughed, now massaging his shoulders around his neck. He groaned. The way he relaxed made her feel as if he'd melt on the berth, and she tightened her knees on his sides to keep a good balance. She experimentally grabbed the wires around his neck, rubbing them firmly.

Suddenly he let out a loud, long sigh. She hummed to herself in amusement. They rarely had times like this, since there was always something going on, or Ratchet wanted to run a test on her for the sake of the sparkling, about anything kept them from having their own time together.

"Busy day, huh?"

He nodded. "Uh-huh…"

She laughed, gently leaning over and kissing the back of his head. "Well, just relax and don't be so tense. You've been through a lot lately."

He groaned, making a gasp erupt from her when he rolled over, placing her on his stomach.

"Why is it that mechs have to do all the hard work?" he mused, crossing his arms behind his head.

She crossed her arms, giving him a play-serious frown. "Uh-huh, 'hard' work."

He chuckled loudly, rolling his optics. Fernblade leaned forward, laying down on his chest and rested her chin on her arms. She stared at him for a long moment, studying his expressions. He looked so relaxed now, which made her feel more comfortable. She felt his chest rise and fall as he took in air. Cybertronians didn't need to breathe air, but with them living on Earth for so long, they had picked up on 'breathing' as a habit. So it was sometimes easy to forget that they didn't need air. Optimus remembered one time when they went to the lake; Bumblebee fell in the water and was in a panic trying to get out thinking he was drowning. That was a good laugh.

Optimus gazed down into his sparkmate's optics; he again saw that glimmer that she always had. It had become normal for him to see them. He was immune to her 'charm' now. Well… almost… Sometimes he was caught off-guard whenever he looked at her optics, and his mind would sometimes go blank. But since it was normal to her, he grew used to seeing them. If anything, they made her look more attractive.

He turned his gaze to the ceiling, studying the lines that zigzagged across the silver-colored surface. He took a deep breath, and closed his optics. He thought about how everything was going to go for Fernblade, with her having the sparkling. He also wondered what the sparkling was going to look like, or if it was a boy or girl. It was too early to tell, and he was in agony. He tried to picture what it would look like. He tried to combine his and Fernblade's appearance. But he couldn't picture it.

She would get a check-up in a week or two to see if the sparkling was growing right. Ratchet said that he'd have to run scans every week or so to check up on the sparkling's and her condition. The medic said maybe in the next week the sparkling orb would show if it was a male or female, and Optimus was anxious to know. He considered how his life would be with a girl. She would probably be more like her mother, and maybe more attached to Fernblade. If it was a boy, maybe he would be closer to Optimus. He wouldn't know. At least until the sparkling came.

She sat up began to massage his abdomen, rolling her fists firmly on the surface of his chest. The Prime made a sound that was like a growl and a groan mixed. She grabbed the front of his neck, gently rubbing the wires and pieces of armor in the crooks. He sighed, leaning his head back further. She slowly dug her fingers into the gaps between his shoulder armor and his neck, and slowly lifted her arms. She then she moved her hands back further down, rubbing his sides.

He let out a chuckle when he felt a prickling on his lower chest. He tried to ignore it, thinking that maybe she was readjusting. But when the feeling got more intense, he gasped and lifted his head to peer down at her. She was looking up at him with bright optics, as if surprised. He tilted his head at her.

"What are you doing?" he chuckled, feeling her fingers walk up his abdomen testily. He quickly grabbed her hand to stop her.

She giggled. "Oh, my! You're ticklish!"

His optics widened, thoughts flashing through his processer. He cleared his throat, looking away distractedly.

"No, I'm not. It just felt weird was all." He said quietly.

"Really?" she asked, lifting an optic ridge.

Optimus smiled as confidently as he could and nodded. He didn't want to make optic contact with her. She stared at him for a moment, and waited until he let go of her hand. When he rested them on his chest, she grinned. She crept her hands down to both sides of his stomach. Then she suddenly started to wiggle her fingers into his sides.

He gasped loudly, jerking his hands to grab hers. But her smaller hands dodged his and dug into the top of his stomach. He cried out in a sharp laugh, squirming.

"Uh-huh… not ticklish…" Her voice was triumphant and cocky, and echoed in his head as she paused her fingers to his relief.

He looked back down at her with a big nervous smile. "Don't you get any ideas, Fern!"

She giggled, a predatory hint gleaming in her optics.

_Oh Primus, help me! _He thought frantically as he tried to sit up, but her legs were tightly set on each of his sides, preventing any movement. He groaned, knowing his fate as he dropped his head onto the berth.

Fernblade gently brushed her fingers across his chest. He jerked and squirmed, trying to escape her magic fingers.

"He-he-he! Fern, come on!" he pleaded, trying desperately to grab her hands.

She giggled, jerking her hands away. He couldn't help but laugh at her as she collected a persistent evil smile. She began to rub her knees against his sides, causing him to yelp and jerk his legs in attempt to make her get off, but with no avail.

"What's the magic phrase?"

He gave her a questioning look, still giggling. "Whahat?"

She dug her fingers under his arms, earning a cry and jerking of his body. He threw his back and struggled harder, tightening his arms against his chest.

"Alright! Hahahaha! Please stop?!"

She shook her head. "Nope."

"Fern!"

_**You have to say 'I love you'.**_

_**I love you?**_

She nodded, putting more pressure. Optimus cried out again, arching his back. The feeling of the tickling was uncomfortable, but yet… it was pleasurable. It made him laugh like he'd never had before and for once, he wasn't being tortured in an evil way of an enemy or tiredness. Well, he could think of this as an evil doing on Fernblade's part, and in a tiring way of laughing his aft off. But in a way, he didn't want to give in. It felt nice to laugh. It somewhat cleared his processer.

But, when she increased the speed and pressure, he considered that maybe the feeling was too much.

"Okay, alright! HAHAHA! Fern, I love you! I love you! I love you! Now STOHOP!"

Not completely satisfied, but having knowing her part of the deal, she eased off. He dropped his head back onto the berth, his chest rising quickly up and down and his breathing coming out in sharp gasps. She smiled, and leaned over again. She laid her head on his chest, feeling his chest slow to calm movements. He barely tilted his head forward to gaze down at her, his mouth still curved into that amused smile she loved.

"Relaxed yet?"

He sighed deeply, chuckling as he leaned his head back again. "I think I could fall into recharge now…"

She smiled, and slid off onto the berth beside him. He let an arm slid under her head as she snuggled up next to him. They were quiet for moment, and then she looked at him, her optics gleaming.

"Optimus?"

He peeked open an optic and peered down at her. "Mhm?"

"What did you find most attractive about me, when we first met?"

He stared at her for a few short moments, and then smiled before looking up. "Hmm… What did I find attractive about you?"

Fernblade smiled, nodding meekly. He hummed to himself for a moment. After a moment of thought, he spoke.

"I think it was your optics."

"My optics?"

Optimus nodded. When she looked at him questioningly, he chuckled. "Well, that was the only part I saw of you. You were pretty good in blending in with the tree's leaves."

Fernblade giggled, hugging him closer. She should have known that he'd make a joke out of it. She sighed, now actually tired herself. But before she could say goodnight to her sparkmate, she saw that he had already fallen asleep into a deep nap. She giggled quietly, and leaned her head against her his shoulder. Soon, she was in recharge beside him.

All the while, she felt the sparkling orb in her chest humming warmly. It would only be some time before it developed, and looked quite like a Cybertronian. But for now, it would remain in Fernblade's chest beside her spark, but little did the Autobots know, there was a miracle forming. A miracle that would have an effect on the whole team.


	7. Chapter 7

**You Caught My Optics Part Two**

By

Dragon with a Shotgun

**Hey, y'all! I'm not so sure if I want to continue this or not. I haven't been getting any reviews for a while, and I'm thinking about Part Two being the last part of the story. I would like to have more reviews to help me feel more confident, if that's not too much to ask from the readers. And also sorry if the story in Part Two hasn't been as good as usual, I've been having a hard time at home, and am running out of inspiration. Thank you, and enjoy.**

**Chapter Seven**

"Prime, calm down. You're freaking me out and I'm not even standing up!"

The young Prime sighed, forcing his legs to stop moving. He'd been pacing back and forth in the living room for around ten minutes as the rest of the team waited for Ratchet and Fernblade to emerge from the med-bay doorway.

Optimus kept his optics on the ground when he spoke. "Sorry, Jazz. I'm just worried."

The white mech nodded, smiling reassuringly. But a hint of worry still glinted in his expression "I'm sure she's alright."

"Yeah," Bulkhead added quietly but wanting to lighten up the mood, "Maybe she just got a cramp."

The red and blue bot lifted an optic ridge. "Do we even have those?"

Prowl nodded. "Yes, I've had them before. But we don't refer to them as 'cramps', as humans call them. We refer to them as 'creaks'."

"Oh," Optimus said, "Creaks…"

Optimus had gone into a panicked state when Fernblade started crying out in pain that day. They were not doing anything active, nothing that made her move much. They were all just having a conversation about the past and telling funny stories and jokes. She was sitting with Optimus as usual, and having a nice time. But she had been quiet that morning. She didn't say much, and looked as if something was bothering. She had even asked Optimus to take his arm off of her shoulders, saying that she was too hot. Afterwards she acted as if she was hurting, rolling her shoulders, gasping at certain times.

Then after a few minutes she was doubled over crying out and not wanting anyone to touch her. Ratchet had rushed her to med-bay to examine her, leaving everyone in the living room in a worried and anxious mood. They had waited for fifteen minutes after the medic took her inside the med-bay. They were all sitting around for the first five, and then Optimus, frantic and deep in thought, stood up and began pacing for the next ten. And he'd planned to keep it on if Jazz hadn't gotten dizzy from turning his head back and forth watching him.

It had been five weeks since the team had discovered that they were going to expect a sparkling. Every few days, her chest seems to have been getting bigger, making her look more bulky. But by the third week, Ratchet had informed that her chest would not get any bigger, for the sparkling orb would not be very big when it was delivered. Sparklings, when their sparks were transported into their protoforms, could fit in the hand of an adult's hand. They were very tiny, and very vulnerable. When exposed to the world, their skin, or future armor, was not as hard as a mature Cybertronian, and any sudden impact on their surface would possibly cause serious damage to the sparkling. The protoform had to be the right size for the orb, and if too big, it would not keep the sparkling alive. Too small, and the sparkling would perish due to too much energy in it. Ratchet was working on the protoform for the sparkling at the time being now that he had something very important to work on.

The Prime reluctantly sat back down on the end of the sofa, covering his face with his hands. He let out an agony filled sigh, sliding his hands from his face and looking down at the ground, his optics dim with a bright center. He couldn't focus well, and his processer was fuzzy.

Finally, he was about to stand up and walk into med-bay. But before he could stand up, Ratchet walked out, rubbing his hands with a white towel. Optimus was grateful that there was not any blue liquid soaking it this time.

Ratchet set the towel down on the table beside the doorway, giving the anxious mechs a nod.

"She is fine, but it wasn't any kind of 'creak'." He said, giving the hint that he'd heard them talking.

Optimus sighed in relief knowing that she was alright, but he frowned at the medic as he stood up. "Then what is wrong with her?"

The older mech gave him a small smile. "It seems that she isn't going to have a sparkling."

The Prime, along with the others behind him, gasped. He swallowed hard, his chest tightening.

"W-what do you mean, 'she isn't going to have a sparkling'?" he choked out, a ball forming in his throat. Did they lose the sparkling? Did something happen to it? Did it die in her chest due to a casualty?

Ratchet smiled brighter, surprising the other team members. "She is having two."

The room was silent for a moment. Optimus stared at the medic in shock, having lost his words. He was blank for a moment, and Ratchet crossed his arms over his chest while he waited for further reaction. He was tickled at their expressions. This was indeed big news. They were not going to have one sparkling, but two! Optimus's optics blinked to dim to bright and back again as he let the news sink into his processer.

The medic cleared his throat, bringing the Prime back to Earth. Optimus coughed, shaking his head.

"T-two?!" was all he could say.

Ratchet chuckled quietly as he nodded at the red and blue mech. Optimus's mouth curved at the end, forming a small, surprised smile.

"Can… I go see her?" he asked after recovering himself.

Ratchet sighed, shaking his head lightly. "The pain she was experiencing was due to a sparkling orb shifting and getting caught on a few wires in her chest. I had to shut Fern down for a while I worked on the damage in her chest."

The medic waited for a moment, letting the information sink in before he continued. "I'm afraid that she won't be able to speak right now, and making physical contact with her at this moment might cause the orbs inside her to move around and hurt her more."

Optimus's shoulders slightly dropped, and his expression shifted into disappointment. He had wanted to talk to his sparkmate about the extraordinary news, but now that he couldn't go into med-bay to see her made his spark sting. But, understanding the medic's wise words, he nodded.

"Yes, Ratchet." He said.

Ratchet smiled reassuringly. "She'll probably be up and about in around an hour or so."

Optimus nodded again, sitting back down on the sofa. Prowl, although he was hiding it, was smiling slightly at the thought of his sister having two sparklings. They now considered each other siblings, although they knew that they were not spark-related. He and Fernblade had bonded. They had not merged sparks, but they had made an unbreakable bond that made him want to protect her at all costs. This was a new thing. Knowing that she was going to have one sparkling was great news, but now knowing that she was having _two _was a whole different story. He was proud, but he wanted to keep his cool in front of the others, and would even to so if he was alone.

Sari had arrived an hour later. Bumblebee had told her the news right off the bat before anyone could open their mouths, much before she could even sit down. But she was squealing, and jumping in circles in joy. Bulkhead and Bumblebee were laughing along with Sari, and they had decided to throw a celebration. Jazz had joined them in their games, and Ratchet and Prowl sat back and watched them. Ratchet would get to work on the second protoform later, right now, he would celebrate with the others.

But… Optimus still sat alone. He had gotten over the shock from earlier news, and was now silent as he was lost in his thoughts. How could they celebrate like this? While she was still unconscious in med-bay with a new threat? Now he had more to worry about than calls on the radio. He had the fear of her being injured with the two sparkling orb forming inside her. Even though the sparkling orbs were very small, the thought of them moving in her chest and causing her more damage worried him. Of course, he was overjoyed that they were having two sparklings! But… he was scared for her. If one sparkling orb caused her that much pain by shifting, imagine what would happen if both started to move at the same time. As strong as the Prime was, he was not strong enough to bear that thought.

He turned his head, watching as the younger mechs and techno-organic start a game of Twister. He wanted to join them and watch them have their fun, but his spark was throbbing in his chest, not wanting to get in the crowd. But the other part of his processer said that he needed to have a little fun. He needed to calm himself and not worry so much. Although his spark protested, he stood up and turned to join the others. And soon, he was chuckling at them fall on the matt.

"_You're even weaker than I'd thought!?" a voice shrieked in her head._

_The Autobot whimpered, grabbing her abdomen. Blue liquid smeared on her hand from her bleeding wound. Her vision was blurry, but she saw that her wound was dripping energon. She put her hand up to her audio, wanting to call her friends. But the pain of moving was too unbearable, and she turned over to look the Decepticon._

"_That wasn't as good as I'd hope it'd be. Thinking that you were from the Elite Guard."_

_Fernblade took a deep breath, looking the femme in the optics._

"_I'm not from the Elite Guard!" she choked. Her throat felt dry, but energon began to cough up from her mouth, splattering the ground. Pain swelled in her chest. The same pain that she had felt earlier. It struck her hard and fast, unexpected. She coughed up again, more energon dripping onto the ground as she doubled over in a panic, liquid filling her tanks. She placed a firm hand on her wound, hoping to keep the bleeding liquid inside her. _

_Slipstream smiled evilly at the weak Autobot, her triumphant smile growing bigger and bigger. Suddenly there was another Decepticon beside her. He looked a lot like her, but with purple armor and an orange piece on his chest. His grin was equally wicked, if not more. Their smiled together sent a shiver down her back, and the burning in her chest increased. _

_Suddenly there was another mech there. He was very large and very evil looking. He had red optics that burned through her. She let out a quiet sob, knowing that after the beating, she was defeated and that there was no way to fight off the stronger and bigger mechs and femme._

"_Master, we have caught this Autobot, just for your fun." The mech that came after the femme said with a sneer. _

_The large silver mech nodded without looking at his second-in-command. "Thank you, Starscream. I'm sure that she'd rather be joining her comrades, though."_

_Fernblade looked up at him. Comrades? What did he mean by that? But then Megatron was holding a small body, and he dropped it in front of her. _

"_Sari?" she gasped, gently picking the techno-organic up off the ground with one hand while holding her own wound. Sari's body was torn and bruised, blue liquid running out of her mouth. Her small eyes were closed, and she was not warm as if she was alive._

"_No…" she sobbed, holding her close to her chest. But suddenly she was gone. Fernblade frantically looked around for her. But then her spark crashed inside her at what she then saw._

_They were in rubble, buried under something or on top of the debris. Bulkhead was buried under some concrete pieces from sidewalks, his optics closed and no life running through his chubby face. Bumblebee was lying on the ground, covered with scrapes and wires handing out of his chest from where his spark had been pulled out and crushed. A pool of energon surrounded him, dried on his face and body. Jazz was leaning against a tree with a limb sticking through his abdomen. His face was frozen in shock and fear, energon dried on his mouth. _

_Fernblade looked to her left, and saw Ratchet flat on top of some rubble, in a pose as if reaching for something. A ray of some sort was just a few inches from his fingertips. Just a few yards away from him, Prowl was hanging from a sign, his legs caught in the pipe that twisted around his knees. He was unable to escape and his chest was open, revealing his empty spark chamber. Suddenly, she let out a choked cry when she saw a blue and red body being held in Megatron's grip, his feet hanging a foot from the ground. The Decepticon leader slung the Prime onto the ground, allowing her to see her sparkmate's face. His optics were opened and very dim blue. _

"_Optimus…!" she sobbed again, gripping her abdomen when her wound stung. She tried to send her thoughts to him, but he didn't move, didn't speak._

_**Optimus, please! Say something!**_

_He didn't send his thoughts back to her. He was limp against the ground. His optics began to fade, just as the Decepticons did._

"_No, Optimus! Please! No!" she shrieked, scrambling to get to him. She kneeled down by his side, lifting his head into her lap. He didn't shift his optics up to look at her. She fought to control her breathing as she patted his cheek._

"_Please… stay with me! Optimus!"_

_Her sobs went unanswered. And suddenly he was gone too, just like Sari. He vanished into smoke. She frantically looked toward the others, but they had disappeared too. She looked around in a panic, and then felt the pain again. She looked at her chest. It felt like something was moving around inside her, and it stung badly. Crying out, she opened her chest, digging in herself to pry the pain out of her. She grabbed hold of two small spheres, and pulled without thinking. The only thing that rushed through her mind was the sheer pain._

_But… then she heard something else besides her screams. She heard a crying. It sounded like a baby crying for its mother. Then there was another, and it seemed like there were more. But she couldn't tell how many there were. The crying echoed in her head, bouncing around and increasing in pitch and volume. She screeched, putting her hands to her audios and shaking her head. The sound was terrifyingly loud, and sent a stake right through her spark. At the same time she could hear laughter. The Decepticons' laughter. The sounds echoed in her head, torturing her. Visions of her comrades flashed through her memory, she couldn't stop it. She let out an audio piercing scream._

"_Fernblade! Fernblade!"_

_She cried out in agony, struggling with the force that gripped her by the shoulders and was shaking her._

"_Fern! Wake up!"_

She sat up abruptly, coughing and sobbing. She struggled with the grip on her shoulders, trying to shake it off. But the more she struggled, the harder the grip became. She grasped the arms holding her.

"Fern, it's me! It's me!"

She snapped her optics open, letting bright light pour in. The world was a blur and was fuzzy. She turned her head toward the figure in front of her. She saw the black armor with gold trimming, and then the blue shades. She studied the figure for a moment, silent as her chest heaved and her processer swirling. She wasn't sure whether to believe he was real or not, and raised her hand to touch his face. She let her trembling fingers slide on his cheek. She gazed at his warm but frightened smile.

"P-Prowl?" she whimpered, feeling his hand take hers. "Is it really you?"

He nodded, bringing her into a strong hug. "Yes, it's me, Fern. I'm here. It's okay."

She was hesitant to hug him back, wondering if he was going to vanish like he had before. But, she couldn't stand being alone, and she snuggled against his chest. He felt so warm, and her panic began to fade as his hand gently but firmly rubbed her back in a soothing motion. She peered from his arms, seeing the others surrounding them. She felt her spark skip beats and a fluttering feeling in her chest. They were alive! They were safe and alive.

Prowl whispered comfortingly. "Easy, Fern… It's alright. We're here."

She hugged his chest, sobbing quietly. She feared that they'd all disappear, and she'd go through the whole process over again. She couldn't stand to think of it. The dream was terrifying, and made her want to go offline. But she clung to Prowl's arms like her life depended on in, not wanting to let go.

"How is she, Ratchet?"

She gasped quietly at her sparkmate's voice, and looked over at him from under Prowl's arm. She so badly wanted to rush over to him and hug him, but she was too settled in the one she was sharing with her brother. She felt the cool, calm sensation radiate off of him as she closed her optics.

She then heard Ratchet's voice. "Her spark readings show that her systems were overloading, and that her processer couldn't take some information."

"Was it due to shutting her down?" Optimus asked.

The medic shrugged unsurely. "I would suspect that, but we won't know for sure."

He nodded, and gazed at his sparkmate curled up with Prowl sitting beside her. The ninja-bot was slowly rubbing her back, shushing her soothingly and whispering to her. Optimus was glad that she was in good hands. Prowl was a smart mech, and knew how to handle situations that required patience. This moment was a perfect time for him to step in for the Prime's sparkmate.

Bumblebee scratched his head. "What do you think went wrong?"

Sari tilted her head. "She looked like she was having a nightmare."

"Nightmare?" Bumblebee blinked at her. "But don't those happen at night?"

Sari smiled knowingly, guessing that the yellow bit caught the 'night' part in nightmare. She turned her jet pack on, and flew up to the medical berth, landing on it with a soft tap.

"Well, you can have nightmares any time, as long as you're asleep." She stated.

Bumblebee nodded dramatically slowly, and then froze. "But if you have them in the day, aren't they called 'day dreams'?"

The techno-organic nodded, and then crossed her arms. "But you have those when you're awake."

The yellow mech, grinned, and nodded as he remembered the time she told him about the term 'imagination'. Ratchet had said that the yellow bot used his 'imagination' a lot of times, and at times when he didn't need it. But he turned his attention back to Fernblade, who was still latched onto Prowl like a leech.

Jazz whistled softly. "Man, that must have been some nightmare to send her into shock like this."

Optimus nodded lightly. It hurt him to see her shivering in the ninja-bot's arms sobbing quietly. When they had heard her screaming they came rushing in med-bay to see her struggling and crying on the berth. Prowl had gotten to her side first surprisingly, and had woke her up. The Prime wondered what had scared her so badly to put her in this state. What had scared her to make her shriek out from unconsciousness?

Ratchet sighed, feeling the tightness in his chest release. "Let's leave them be. She needs to be alone and needs to be with somebody like this." He motioned his hands in a shooing fashion.

The rest of the team nodded, and started out the door, except for Prowl. He watched as they left, and once they were gone, he sighed heavily.

"You scared the living daylights out of me, Fern…" he said quietly.

She took a deep breath, wanting to speak, but it came out as a sob.

Prowl creased his optic ridges in worry, and rubbed her back more firmly. He felt as she went into crying again, sobbing against his shoulder as he held her against him.

Finally she whimpered. "I'm sorry…"

He blinked, and rested his chin on her head. "It's alright, you didn't mean to. It was a nightmare." He was silent for a while; soothingly rubbing her back and feeling her sobs subside. "Care to tell me about it?"

She nodded against his shoulder, and reluctantly pulled back from their hug. He wiped her optics, removing energon tears from her face. She smiled weakly, and then swallowed.

"I think it all started on the day I met Slipstream… and then Starscream and Megatron were there. Megatron threw Sari onto the ground in front of me, dead and cold… the rest of the team, including you, were all dead…" she sobbed, feeling her chest tighten. "I held Optimus in my arms, and suddenly you all vanished! You all disappeared into thin air as if you were never there… but that wasn't the worst of it… there was this pain in my chest, and I began to tear into my own chest to get the pain out… I pulled out these orbs, and then there were this crying. Baby screams, I think… they cried and cried and cried… and there was this laughing."

She hugged prowl again. "It was horrible, Prowl! I don't ever want to lose you and the others…"

The mech sighed knowingly, feeling that from her present state the nightmare had sent her into a terrorized shock. He nodded as he listened to her, reassuringly stroking her.

"You won't lose us, Fern. We're here, and that was just a nightmare… It wasn't real."

She hiccupped in her sobbing. "It felt too real to believe that I was really looking at you…"

He patted her back gently. He didn't want to let her go, and it seemed that she didn't want to let go either. They were melted to each other, sharing their emotions nonverbally. She felt all kinds of emotions fill her. There was fear, sadness, shock, but… also curiosity. Where did the babies' screaming come from? What was with that? Why was there more than one? Why did all of this happen on the same day she fought with Slipstream in her dream? It was confusing, and sent her processer swirling. The nightmare was just so random… as if somebody slapped together her past and present. It was scary, and she very so hoped that she wouldn't have to go through that again.

"Are you alright now?" Prowl's voice echoed softly in her mind. It was soothing, and settled her mind.

She nodded meekly, sniffling. "I think so…"

He released her, letting her cross her legs and settle her hands on her knees. He sat across from her on the end of the berth.

"Do you know about the sparkling orbs?"

She shook her head, but then froze. She snapped her head back up.

"Orbs? As if more than one?" she asked, her optics widening.

Prowl smiled, and nodded. "Yes. Ratchet told us after he was done working on you that you were having two sparklings."

She then smiled, and it grew bigger, and bigger until she looked as if she was grinning from audio to audio. He smiled brightly back at her, and welcomed the new, happy hug that wasn't filled with sadness and fear. He chuckled, and patted her back before she leaned back and sat with her legs crisscrossed.

"So, how does it feel to be a future uncle, Prowl?" she giggled, raising an optic ridge at him.

He tilted his head for a moment's thought, and then smiled at her happily. "I feel overjoyed."

She smiled, and sighed, rubbing her throbbing head. He nodded knowingly. "Do you want to rest before you get up?"

Her optics widened as she snapped her head up. "No! I mean… I don't want to recharge…"

He gave her a sympathetic smile, nodding in understanding. "I see. Well, you don't have to recharge. We can just sit for a while until you get your bearings."

Relief flashed on her face as she smiled warmly at him. She sat up more, and crawled over to him, lying down and resting her head against his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her in a comforting manner, and felt as she began to relax. He knew that she'd fall into recharge, and didn't try to keep her awake. She had a hard time bearing with the nightmare from earlier, and needed her rest. He sighed, rubbing her shoulder soothingly, and felt as her breathing became more shallow, and then she fell silent as she slowly slipped into recharge.


	8. Chapter 8

**You Caught My Optics Part Two**

By

Dragon with a Shotgun

**Yep, they are gonna have two sparklings! Yay! And I'm the one writing it… XD I hope you like it. I'm working my butt off on this. ^.^' Anyways, enjoy!**

**Chapter Eight**

Ever since she had that nightmare that she woke up screaming from two weeks ago, Fernblade had been more alert about the Decepticon signals on the computer in the main room, or living room. Whenever Ratchet went out for a while or when everybody was out on a call, which now seemed like it was more often since she couldn't go, she'd watch the screen and search for any Decepticon activity on other planets or on Earth. She knew the dream was only fake, but it felt real enough to be fearful for her sparklings' lives. Her behavior affected the team. They spoke one night that they would not go on a call unless Captain Fanzone called for help. They would stay near base to help ease the expecting mother's nerves.

She'd tell them that she'd be fine, but the response she usually got was a, "No, if they don't need us, then we won't go" or a "Fernblade, you need us to stay. You're under too much stress." She wanted so badly for them to let her be. She was nervous enough already, and seeing the images of them as they looked in her dream made her processer scream in agony. She was scared, and confused. Ratchet had told her to calm down multiple times, fearing that her behavior would affect the sparkling orbs inside her.

She was now nervous to do anything, fearing that she'd cause the two sparkling orbs inside her to shift and hurt herself or them. Ratchet said that the orb that had damaged her wiring in her chest was shifting closer to her spark for more energon. The one closest to the spark would be slightly bigger, getting more energon than the other. Ratchet was doing more measurements to determine how big the protoforms would have to be. He couldn't keep track of which one was which, being almost the same color orbs. But he made charts to keep up with certain details. Both were male, and looked very much alike. But one was getting a greenish tint to it. Once brought into the world, the green would disappear, leaving the light blue that all Cybertronian sparks had. Ratchet said that the green one was slightly smaller than the darker blue one, which was closer to Fernblade's spark.

"How are they?"

Ratchet studied the image on the screen. It showed an inside photo of the sparkling orbs at one and a half months in development. They seemed like they were developing nicely, and looked as if everything was healthy.

"Well," the medic began, "It all looks fine. I'm surprised though."

She raised an optics ridge at him. "Why?"

He motioned with his hands. "Usually femmes have a hard time going through the process of having two sparklings. Some medics say that in a way it makes them go crazy because they lose energon from their own supply faster since the orbs are only trying to survive."

Fernblade blinked at him in disbelief. She WAS going crazy! Why wouldn't she be? But she wasn't nuts about the energon, it was the fear of something happening that was related to that nightmare. She wanted to shriek at him what the problem was. Her mind was screaming. Energon had nothing, NOTHING to do with it. Did it?

Ratchet then continued. "But you seemed to have handled yourself pretty well, despite the complications of that shut down I put you in, and the lack of energon in your body. If anything, you seem as healthy as the sparkling orbs."

Fernblade tilted her head at him questioningly, but shrugged. She shook away the sudden and odd rage out of her mind. Why had she taken that so offensively? He was simply stating what he knew. So why was she angered by it? She swung her legs over the berth, and stood up. Stretching out her body to get rid of the stiffness, she gave Ratchet a curious glance.

"Ratchet, do you ever get the feeling that something's going to happen, but you're not quite sure whether to believe yourself or not?"

He blinked at her, taking in a moment's though before nodding.

"Sometimes, I do. But it's not often. Why? Do you think something's wrong with the sparkling orbs?"

She shook her head. "No, it's not that…" She then looked away.

Ratchet frowned, and then sighed. "It's about that nightmare, isn't it?"

She shrugged, not wanting to give a direct answer. She heard his footsteps behind her, and almost jumped when he put a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head toward him, an almost pleading look covering her normally happy face.

He sighed. "Fern, you don't need worry about that nightmare. You're letting it get to your head."

She nodded. "I know… but I can't help it."

He studied her for a moment, and looked away for a moment to come up with something to help her. But then there was something on the computer screen that caught his attention. He let go of her shoulder, patting her twice before he turned away to see who was calling. He saw a femme's image, and frowned for a moment, trying to figure out if he knew her or not. He pushed a button and the femme's face grew to a larger size.

"Ratchet speaking, who is this?"

The purple femme smiled nervously. "Is Fernblade there? I'm a friend of hers."

The medic turned his head toward the green mother-to-be and motioned to the screen. She smiled brightly and nodded. He nodded back and passed her on the way out the door. When he'd left, she sighed in relief.

"Lavender! Primus, am I glad to see you!"

Lavender smiled back through the screen as she watched her friend take a seat in the chair in front of the computer. "Hey, girl! How've ya been?"

Fernblade smiled. "I've had an interesting few months."

The purple femme rested her chin on her hands propped up on her elbows. "Well, spill it."

"Lavender, I'm going to have sparklings."

Lavender stared blankly at her for a minute. She blinked slowly before suddenly she grabbed the screen.

"WHAT?!"

Fernblade laughed, nodding at her as she set the computer back down. "Yes, I'm expecting, Lavender."

"You and Optimus?"

"Yes."

Lavender then squealed loudly, and looked like she fell backwards on the screen. Fernblade giggled at her friend. After a long moment, Lavender collected herself and was grinning.

"Primus, wait… you said sparklings. Do you mean as in… more than one?" she asked, her optics wide.

Fernblade nodded. "Yes, I'm having two boys."

"Aw! I wish I could be there with you. Have you thought of names?"

"No, I'm been too distracted lately." When her friend gave her a curious frown, she sighed.

So she told Lavender the story about her nightmare, and everything in it. She told every little detail so that Lavender would understand what the mechs couldn't. The mechs couldn't see that she was terrified. But that was because she hid it from them. She didn't want them worrying, and if they knew, they would be with her all the time. She needed her own space!

Lavender nodded, frowning. "Gee, that sounds horrible! I wish I could help you. My friend never had that happen to her when she was having a sparkling."

Fernblade sighed heavily. "I'm always expecting something to happen." She then snapped her head up with a frightened look.

"What if I was seeing the future? What if I saw what would happen in the future?" she asked frantically, her chest tightening.

Lavender rolled her optics, and shook her head. But a sympathetic expression layered her features. "Fern, honey, you didn't see the future. It was just a random dream that came out of nowhere."

Fernblade frowned. Why didn't she believe her? She _could've _seen the future, just not intentionally. Nobody was listening to her, and it made her feel alone. Megatron could come back, and kill all of her friends and she would be left screaming helplessly in pain. The thought of it made her want to cry.

"Fern!"

She gasped and looked up to see Lavender frowning. "Look, you had a nightmare. Everybody does. You don't even have the ability to do that!"

The truth hit her hard. Lavender was right. Everybody had random dreams like that, and she didn't even have to ability to see into the future or past unless with memories. Ratchet's words echoed back. She WAS letting it get to her head… Maybe she was just being hard on herself.

"I'm sorry…" she sighed. "I'm just scared. I've had a rough few months and…" she trailed off.

Lavender stared at her for a moment, now feeling a little guilty for snapping at her. She just didn't want her friend to be so scared of something that wouldn't happen. Fernblade was a very emotional femme, and she let things get to her too much. Since she'd first met Fernblade, she'd seen her emotional side on certain occasions. She'd keep to herself, and wouldn't let anyone help her. She'd hide her emotions, though, by not speaking to anybody. And that's how Lavender knew whenever she was in a bad mood.

"Sorry, Fern… I'm just saying. This is a big and happy subject. You are going to have sparklings!" She had hoped to cheer Fernblade up with her words.

Fernblade looked up, a small smile forming. "Yeah, I guess so."

So they talked some more about the expected sparklings. Lavender was a bit disappointed that she wasn't going to have a girl, but, she was still excited about it. Heck, they spoke for the next hour about nothing but Fernblade's future as a mother. The talked about names, how the rest of the team would handle it, how Optimus would handle being a father, and about how she would do as a mother. They spoke about what they would look like, too. But they had trouble imagining it.

Lavender was about to start a new topic, but suddenly there was another voice heard over the screen.

"Lavender, what are you doing out of your department?!"

Lavender gasped and smiled nervously. "I got to go, Fern. I'll talk to you later after Sentinel's done chewing me out for ditching work."

Fernblade nodded with an amused smile, and watched as she disappeared and the screen went black. She sighed, giggling at the thought of Lavender ditching work like that just to see her. But, knowing that the others were probably waiting, she stood up and made her way out of the room. She saw the group standing up in a serious-looking conversation. She didn't want to interrupt them while they looked so focused, so she turned back and silently went toward the hallway.

As she walked down the hall, she gasped, stopping dead in her tracks. She froze for a second, and put a hand on her chest. After a moment of processing the movement she felt in her chest, she sighed relieved. She knew that this would be normal, at least until the orbs were ready to leave her body. But that didn't help erase the fact that it would scare the spark out of her when they moved without warning. Throughout her time of carrying them, her chest felt warm and crowded, as if something needed to be let out. She hated the feeling, and wished that she could just take them out and put them somewhere safe until she felt more comfortable to put them back in. But, she knew that she had no choice.

So she continued on, and entered the bedroom. She sighed as she gazed at the crib-like structure that stood across from the berth on the left side of the room. She walked toward it, and stopped in front of it. She traced a hand over the railing, imagining what it was going to be like for it to have two little sparklings in it. She smiled warmly, picturing her or Optimus waking up in the middle of the night because of them was crying. She then chuckled at the thought of Optimus not knowing what to do with it. But, he'd learn, and so would she. They'd learn to take care of them, and become great parents. Her fears somehow had been forgotten, and she smiled as she placed a hand in the crib, feeling the blue blanket's soft surface. She could just picture a little blue sparkling smiling up at her, and her picking him up and cradling him. But that vision suddenly changed.

She suddenly saw blur, and blinked rapidly. But when the blur didn't clear up, she looked around. She saw a mech standing a little ways off. He was very tall and slender. He had red optics that gazed in a pleased way at her. She frowned at him, waiting for him to do something. But, he didn't. He just stood there. She recognized him as Starscream. At first she gasped and was about to call the others, but then he was gone.

Fernblade blinked again. The world was suddenly clear, and left her confused. Was she glitching? She shook her head, shaking the image out of her head. She had been seeing a lot of things lately, and they were mostly about Starscream and Megatron. She'd see things that she'd remember from her past, and then as if the future. But she was never sure what she saw. A few days earlier she had seen only blackness, and a bright blue orb. She couldn't tell what she saw at many times. Maybe she needed to tell Ratchet. But then again, he would most likely say that she was crazy and tell her that it'd stop soon. So she sighed, and walked to the berth, sitting down to ease the sudden headache. When it was gone, she looked around. These visions had come out of nowhere, and it freaked her out at some times. She sighed, and rested her chin on her hands. She waited for a few moments, not knowing why or what she was waiting for.

Then the door opened. At first she thought that it was Optimus, but when she saw the white armor, she tilted her head curiously

"Hey, Jazz, what's up?"

He waved lightly, wearing a cool smile. "Hey, Fern. I just wanted to come check up on you."

She smiled calmly, and shrugged. "I'm fine, Jazz. Just a little confused."

Suddenly Prowl came in behind Jazz. At the same moment he came in, he had heard her comment and cocked an optic ridge at her. "Why are you confused?"

Fernblade shrugged again, shaking her head. They looked at each other for a moment as if reading each other's thoughts, and nodded slightly before stepping in front of the berth. They both wore wondering, yet stern expressions and studied her for a moment before they sat down on the floor in front of her.

"What is wrong?" Prowl asked, blinking slowly at her.

She sighed, not knowing where to start. How was she supposed to explain about her visions to these two? Sure, maybe they would understand her, but then again they might do the same as Ratchet and tell her that the visions would go away. But, seeing their stern and questioning faces, she knew that she had no choice.

"Alright," she said shakily, "You're gonna think I'm crazy, but I have been seeing things lately."

Jazz leaned forward. "Related to your nightmare?"

Fernblade shook her head. "No, but the Decepticons are in them sometimes. I'm not quite sure of what to think of it."

Prowl nodded, staying quiet. She was seeing visions, and she wasn't frightened. More like she was confused and curious than scared and shaken. Was it normal for femme's to have visions during their 'pregnancy'? He wasn't quite sure about all of that, for he never took any interest in such information. But he was interested in what she saw. Maybe it was a sign. Maybe it was a gift? He couldn't be sure. He knew that she had never been able to see into the past and future. So, why was it happening while she was expecting?

Finally after a long silence and a long moment of thought, he looked at her.

"Is there anything in particular that catches your attention?"

She shook her head. "Not really. I'm quite used to it. They started a few days after the nightmare." She was actually quite surprised in their sudden interest in her visions. But she suspected that they only wanted to see if she was okay.

"So, nothing in them alerts you?" Prowl asked.

"Mainly, I just want to know where they come from." She replied quickly.

He nodded, looking over at Jazz. The white bot cocked an optic ridge at him questioningly. Prowl frowned and looked back at Fernblade.

"Maybe we can see about these visions."

She perked up, her optics brightening and blinking at them curiously. Having his answer, he nodded.

"Then you need to lie down on the berth. I'll perform a small technique that might work."

Fernblade nodded, and scooted back as the two mechs stood up. She lied down flat on her back on the berth. Jazz gave Prowl a curious frown.

"What are you going to do?"

Prowl raised a hand. "I'm going to try to enter her mind."

"Mind over processer thing again, huh?"

The dark ninja-bot rolled his optics, nodding slightly. Bumblebee had grown annoyed in his 'Mind over Processer' techniques, and usually joked about them. But with Jazz being sort of a ninja also, it made Prowl more comfortable with doing it without the worry of being made fun of and breaking his concentration. He positioned himself on the foot of the berth, and closed his optics.

Fernblade watched him for a moment, and guessed that she needed to close her optics too, and leaned back. She relaxed, knowing that during these situations, Prowl couldn't do tension. So being calm and at peace at the moment would be nice for him. After a moment, she felt tired, and the recharging blackness took over, letting in the ninja's mind. Prowl's intention was to get to the core of the visions, to see where they were coming from.

Prowl could see only darkness for a moment, and in her mind, began to explore her past. Before he got too far he felt a bit warm. It was an intense warmth, and he couldn't figure out what or where it was coming from. He wondered if he was in her mind at all. But then he began to see his surroundings. It was dark, and crowded. He saw a bright, sky blue sphere. It was glowing in the darkness, casting a dim blue ray around it. It looked almost like a sun in a way. Then it hit him. It was a spark. Her spark.

He was quite confused. Why was he looking at her spark? Why was he in her chest? This wasn't only surprising, but awkward. He looked around, and blinked at his surroundings. He then saw an orb beside him. He tilted his head, curious of what it was. Then it hit him. He was looking at one of the sparkling orbs! So if that bright blue sphere was Fernblade's spark, and that other little orb was one of the future sparklings, then he must have been seeing through the other sparkling orb's point of view! But how? Could a sparkling orb actually see? This question burned in his processer.

Suddenly he was back in reality. He blinked several times, and shook his head. He saw Jazz looking at him anxiously.

"I don't think she is the one creating the visions in her own mind, Jazz." Prowl said before the white ninja could speak.

Jazz stared at him blankly. He almost didn't catch his friend's words, and was confused. But after a moment, he lifted a curious optic ridge at him.

"Then what is?" he asked flatly.

They both looked back at Fernblade, who began to stir and sit up, yawning. She rubbed her optics, and silently gasped, having forgotten about the two mechs being in the room. But once she stared at them for a long moment, and recovered herself, she sighed. She then remembered what Prowl had done, and became alert.

"Did you find anything?" she asked, hopefully.

He nodded calmly, but a hint of confusion lingered in his expression, as if he couldn't quite grasp the truth. He was collecting the pieces of the puzzle, and trying to put them together. She stared at him for a moment, waiting for him to answer.

After a moment, he blinked, and looked back at her. "Fernblade, I think those visions that you are having… are being created by the sparkling orbs."

Fernblade stared at him in disbelief. Then after a few seconds, she frowned.

"What?"

Prowl cleared his throat. He didn't know how to tell his sister that her sparkling orbs were making the odd images and visions in her head. Who would believe it? They were orbs, not beings. At least not yet. So he tried thinking of a way to put his words.

"I think the memories that you have are being… transmitted in a way to your sparkling orbs." He said, not sure how to say it exactly.

"Yeah," Jazz said as he rubbed his chin, getting the idea, "They must be combining the past few weeks' events and putting them all into one vision. Maybe it's a message?"

Prowl shook his head. "I am not certain."

Fernblade frowned, crossing her arms. "So… you are saying that my sparklings are able to see the past, present, and future, combine it all into a vision, and play it in my head?"

The two mechs nodded slowly, and a little unsurely, and then wore shocked faces when she started laughing.

"OH MY PRIMUS! And Ratchet thought _I_ was crazy!"

Prowl and Jazz only stared at her in confusion. Had she lost her mind? They waited a minute until she pulled herself together before continuing.

"Fern, we're serious."

She took a deep breath, and placed her hands firmly on the berth.

"Come on, do I need to get Ratchet to check your processers? They're orbs, for Primus's sake! How can they think yet without a body?" she questioned, glaring at them. They saw the confusion filling her optics. But soon she began to realize, and her shoulders drooped.

"So… you two are not kidding…" she said quietly. She looked back down at her chest, placing her hands to it and falling silent.

Her orbs could send her visions? But how? They couldn't think, they couldn't do much at all! How were they supposed to do anything? They had no limbs at this stage of development and wouldn't until they were transported into their protoforms. Could they even see? No, they didn't have optics. So… this meant that she wasn't going crazy? She wasn't insane? She'd been freaking out for nothing? Thank Primus, but there was one thing that made her feel frightened.

"So does this have something to do with the nightmare I had a few weeks ago?" she asked quietly, looking at them with dim optics.

Prowl and Jazz looked at each other in thought, and then Prowl nodded slowly. "Perhaps, but we won't know for sure until you are ready to deliver."

"Oh…" she said, looking down at the floor. Great. She would have to live with these visions until she was ready to deliver the orbs to their protoforms. She didn't have a problem with the orbs themselves; it was the thought of having those visions. They creeped her out, and they weren't natural to her. They sent shivers up and down her back after she had one. They made her nervous at times. But… now she finds out that they came from her future sparklings!

But, maybe it's true. Maybe they did have the ability to see into the past, present, and future even before they were brought into the world. But, how will it affect Fernblade? The visions that mixed these times confused her, and will more than likely send Ratchet into a shock. So… was there actually a future that… maybe… the Autobots would perish at the hands of Decepticons? If the nightmare she had was true, and that they would have that future, then they needed to speak to the Elite Guard.

Right away.


	9. Chapter 9

**You Caught My Optics Part 2**

By

Dragon with a Shotgun

**Hey, sorry for not posting in so long. I've been having trouble with how to start this and have had a long week (also I got a cold so you get the point…) Can someone help suggest a plan for the next chapter, or at least an idea? I'm losing my thoughts of what is going to happen next and I want to continue this but I can't think of anything… If so, I would appreciate it if someone could lend a hand. Thanks, and enjoy this at least.**

**Chapter 9**

"What do you mean, Optimus? The Decepticons haven't been heard from since we defeated them some time back." Ultra Magnus questioned as he gazed at the small group of Autobots in front of him.

Optimus tilted his head down a little, but didn't take his optics off their leader. "That is not entirely true, sir. We have encountered a Decepticon a long while back earlier this year."

"Oh, then who was it?" Sentinel asked stiffly from the stand to their side.

"Slipstream. Fernblade was attacked by her and was beaten severely. I managed to run her off, but the knowledge that she is still on Earth puts us on alert." The young Prime said as confidently as he could.

The Autobot team from Earth was having a meeting with Ultra Magnus and the other higher ranked counselors of Cybertron about the news that they had found out about the sparkling orbs, who could surprisingly see the past, present, and future. The council had first said that they were nuts about the sparkling orbs, especially Sentinel, who almost practically laughed out loud. But as the team explained the facts about the past few weeks with Fernblade's nightmare, and the past visions afterward and that they happened right after the beating, Ultra Magnus was actually considering if it was true.

"So you think the Decepticons are coming back with a new plot?" one of the older mechs in the stands asked, leaning forward a little.

Optimus shook his head. "It's not for certain."

"Then what do you suppose we do, Optimus Prime?" Ultra Magnus asked, sitting up straighter and arching an optic ridge.

The Prime was about to speak, but then one of the counselors spoke up in a bold tone directed at Ultra Magnus.

"Magnus, don't you think we should be speaking to the one who is having the visions herself? No offense to the young Prime, but perhaps she would have a better point of view to what should happen." The bot that spoke was smaller and younger than the other counselors, most likely a newer member of the high ranks. He had silver armor, and bright, thoughtful optics that shown as he gazed at the large blue and silver leader.

Ultra Magnus was silent for the slightest moment, and then nodded at Optimus. "I believe it would be more precise to do so. Alright, let the young femme come forth."

Fernblade felt her spark go cold. She had never been in one of Ultra Magnus's council meetings before, and coming to this one was enough to put her on the edge. But knowing that her friends had her back, although they would not be beside her to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, she nodded slightly and shakily stepped forward beside Optimus. Her sparkmate looked at her expressionless, and then stepped back.

She had never felt as alone as the moment she had when she stood in front of the counsel. It was frightening, and nerve racking. But, she kept a straight face as she stepped up onto the platform behind the desk-like table.

"Alright, young one," Ultra Magnus spoke calmly, "Tell us about these 'visions' that you've been having."

Fernblade hesitated, and cleared her throat distractedly. Then she sighed. "I… I am not sure of what they mean, Ultra Magnus. All I know is that they were full of violence, and death. They worry me, and make me think that something is going to happen. The visions of the team being killed were horrific."

Suddenly Sentinel Prime waved a hand in the air. "Ultra Magnus, are we kidding ourselves?"

The counsel leader frowned questioningly at his second in command, and Sentinel raised his hands in defense.

"No offense, sir, but think about it. She is probably just going through one of those things femmes go through when they are expecting. Like medics on Cybertron say, femmes can go crazy whenever they are expecting. Is that not right, Ratchet?"

Ratchet's optics widened for a moment, caught off by the sudden directed question to him. But he coughed, and nodded lightly.

"That is true, but only on certain conditions."

"And what conditions are those, medic?" The Prime prompted, planting his hands on the desk.

Ratchet shook his head slowly. "Well, it usually happens and has been recorded most of femme having two sparklings." He saw the counsels' optic ridges crease as they gave each other grave expressions. So in a short panic, Ratchet quickly added. "But she is perfectly sane. She has had her moments, but that was only because of the visions she had when I had shut her down, which was my fault."

Sentinel nodded. "So she is unreliable?"

"No, she is not." Optimus spoke loudly, if not too boldly.

The other Prime shot him a warning glare. "I don't think that question was directed to you, Optimus!"

Optimus was about to make a snappy comeback, but Ratchet put a hand on his shoulder, silencing him. What the prime really wanted to do was beat the scrap out of Sentinel, but doing that would cost him. So, he kept quiet.

Ultra Magnus gave his second in command an equally warning frown, making the Prime sit down, and look back at the medic. Magnus then nodded calmly at Ratchet.

The old mech sighed. "No, Magnus, she is not unreliable. If anything, she can be of great help. If she keeps having these visions, maybe they could help predict something about Decepticon activity."

Magnus nodded. "Possibly. Fernblade, is it always Decepticons you see in your visions?"

Fernblade took a deep breath, and nodded. "Most of the time. Sometimes I see things that I cannot explain. But I have learned that maybe I am seeing through the view of the sparkling orbs."

"The sparkling orbs' view? Are you saying that they can see?"

She nodded. "I wouldn't say 'see' but 'feel'."

"This is crazy." Once again, Sentinel spoke out, rather harshly. "You are saying that the sparkling orbs, which are not even fully developed, are able to feel what's going on in the world before they are born?"

Fernblade, more confidently, spoke. "Yes, I am. They can see my memories, and mix them, and turned them into visions."

Sentinel huffed, leaning back in the seat. "Most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

She glared at him. "Everything you hear is ridiculous to you, Sentinel!"

He snapped his head back to her, his optics burning. "And what makes you think that you can just insult me?"

"You!" she snapped back.

Ultra Magnus raised a hand and silenced them. Sentinel gave her one last glance before turning his gaze away. She let her optics burn into him before softening her expression when she looked at Magnus. He stared at her for a moment, and nodded.

"I see that you cannot control these visions. So do you think something is going to happen?"

Fernblade was quiet for a moment, and she looked at her feet in thought. She really didn't know, but these visions didn't start until the orbs were starting to develop well. So, were these visions true, and were the Autobots in trouble? After some time of thinking, she looked up.

"I think we should be alert. If Slipstream is here, then Starscream must be, and if Starscream is around, then as we all know Megatron must be around. We all know how Starscream hates Megatron, but is working with him again for a reason that is unknown. But I am going by my instincts her, Magnus. I wish for something to be done about it, just for the sake of the team..." she trialed off, pausing for a moment to think before looking a Sentinel and adding. "And the Elite Guard."

Sentinel glared back at her, but was silent. Ultra Magnus nodded as he listened, and stood up. "Then we will send troops out to search the galaxy."

Sentinel shot up. "Ultra Magnus-,"

Ultra Magnus held up a hand to silence him. "Sentinel, you know as well as I do that she is not insane. If what she speaks is the truth, then we need to be on alert. Do I make myself clear?"

The Prime was about to protest, but seeing the sternness in his leader's optics, he grumbled and nodded stiffly. Then he turned away and walked through the doorway behind him. Ultra Magnus then gazed down at Fernblade.

"But I have to say this. I will have to keep you here until the sparkling orbs are transported to their protoforms and you stop having these visions."

Fernblade gasped. "But why can't I stay on Earth?"

"Because if the Decepticons are going to attack as you've seen, then we need to know when and how. If the visions keep up, and we find out how, then we will let you go back to Earth."

She stuttered, not knowing what to say. Rage started to fill her. They wanted to use her. They wanted to keep her here so that they could hear about the visions she could have. The thought of them doing so made her mind scream in anger. But before she could speak another word, Prowl was at her side.

"Ultra Magnus, you're not saying that you are going to use the sparkling orbs to your advantage against the Decepticons, are you?" His voice was stiff and had a hint of panic in it.

The large blue and silver mech lowered his gaze, and then returned it to the ninja-bot. "As unfair and as cruel as it may sound, I am afraid that there is no other choice in the matter."

Optimus stepped up to Fernblade's left side, his expression hard. "So you are saying that you are going to use Fernblade?"

Ultra Magnus's face hardened, and he stood up. "Like I said, there is no other choice. I really hate to do this, Optimus Prime. But, your team is allowed to stay here with her."

With that, he left through the doorway behind him, leaving the shocked and angered Autobot team standing in the middle of the room. The space was silent. No one knew what to say about this. Fernblade was going to be taken and be used with finding out what the Decepticons plans were. She didn't even know what the visions all meant exactly! Fernblade looked down at her feet, a sob forming in her throat.

"This is my fault… if I hadn't said what I had said, we wouldn't be in this mess…"

Optimus shook his head and hugged her tightly. "No, Fern, they would've have done it anyway probably."

Ratchet nodded in agreement. "Prime is right. They would have discussed is elsewhere maybe, but would have still made the same choice." His voice was grave, and low.

Fernblade sobbed into Optimus shoulder, hating herself at that moment, and hating the world.

So Fernblade was taken by two guards to her new room. As they walked away, she looked over her shoulder at her team with dread, and then turned her head away. She felt her chest tighten at the thought of not going back to Earth, and wondered if the Autobots would stay or go back to Earth and help the humans. She hated the thought of not seeing them. At that moment, she hated Ultra Magnus.

But she knew his intentions. He only wanted to do what was best for the Elite Guard and the other Autobots. But why in this manner? Why was she to be separated from her family? Her spark burned in her chest as if it was on fire.

She let her optics shift over to the mech beside her. He had orange armor, a thick built, and a stern expression that looked as if it was frozen. He didn't look friendly, and seemed the type that got irritated easily, so she didn't say anything to him. But she did know this bot. He was Ironhide, a pretty tough mech. Then she looked at the mech to her right. He was much shorter with black armor with white racing stripes, and had a kiddish face that showed that he was younger than she. She didn't know him.

_Rookie… _she thought to herself in silence.

They walked for several more minutes, and it became way too quiet for her. She could do with silence. But when it was tense and dead silence, it really got onto her nerves. She carefully cleared her throat before speaking.

"So… how long until we get to my room, Ironhide?"

He shifted his gaze slightly to her, and then turned his head, showing his curious frown.

"How do you know me?" he asked, his voice hard but calm.

"I delivered some paperwork to your work area a few times before I moved to Earth, while I worked on the ship. I've heard your name used quite often."

His frown faded into a small smile as he nodded. "Ah, yes! Fernblade, was it?"

She nodded. "Yes, I'm Fernblade."

"Uh-huh… I've heard you were a favorite worker of Sentinel. Since you left I've heard he busted a few screw in his head." He stated amusingly, chuckling a little.

She laughed quietly, shaking her head. "I've heard. How's work been?"

"It could be worse." He replied casually.

Then the young black and white mech spoke. "But with the news of Decepticons raging on through the stations, we might have more on our plate than we can handle." His soft voice barely echoed through the hallway as they strolled on silently.

Ironhide nodded in agreement as they slowly rounded a corner of the halls. "Yep, bots raging on when we should attack, what we should attack, what we should do, so on and so forth."

The young bot then smiled warmly at Fernblade. "I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm your guard, Sharpshooter." He took her head, surprising her, and shook it rather flatteringly.

She smiled, and cocked a optic at him. "My guard?"

He nodded. "Yes, I am to watch over you while you here for your temporary visit."

She nodded, and then she looked down at his hand, which was still gently grasping hers. Ironhide then growled.

"Leave her be, Shooter. She's Optimus Prime's 'mate." He said gruffly as they stopped at a door.

The young mech's optics widened and he quickly retracted his hand to his side, a sheepish, shy smile spreading over his face. He was much younger than her, but he was quite cute. But more like the kid kind of cute, not the handsome kind of cute. But he did seem like a sweet young mech.

She smiled in understanding and looked at the door. "This is my room?"

Ironhide nodded, and handed her a small car-like piece than had a code printed on it. "Yep, and this is your key. Shooter's room is just right her."

Fernblade looked to the door he motioned to right across from her room. She was actually kind of shocked of how close his room was to hers. But then again if he was her guard, he would have to be close wouldn't he?

She nodded, and pressed the key into the lock before the door slid open.

"Do you need me to do anything for you, Mrs.?"

Fernblade smiled warmly at Sharpshooter as he stood there alone now with Ironhide gone off to Primus knows where. At that moment, he seemed like he didn't know quite what to do. So she shook her head gently.

"No, Sharpshooter. I actually need some time to be alone." She turned away, and then paused for a moment before looking at him again. "Then again, can you tell Optimus Prime that if he goes back to Earth, to contact me through my computer?"

Sharpshooter's face lit up as if he was happy to have a job set for him. He nodded frantically and saluted.

"Yes, of course Mrs.! Right away!" Then he did a bow-like gesture before jogging down the hall. She watched after him, and sighed calmly as she shook her head while smiling. Poor bot. He probably wasn't chosen for many tasks, and was thrilled to have a job as little as this. After a second of thought, she turned and closed the door behind her.

The room was quite large, but not as big as hers and Optimus's room. The berth was way across the room, lined up with the wall. The computer was on the left side of the room, large and more advanced than her own back on Earth. There was a large mirror that hung by the berth on the wall. It was at least as tall as Sentinel, and just as wide. A large chair stood a little ways from the berth. But besides that, the room was empty and dark.

She sighed quietly, and slowly walked over to the berth. She plopped down on the berth tiredly, sighing heavily. The berth was cold, and sent shivers up her body. Suddenly a knock on the door caught her attention.

"Mrs., I have given Optimus Prime your message."

Fernblade smiled at Sharpshooter's voice, and sat up.

"Do you want to be alone, Mrs.?"

She hurried to the door, and opened it with a swift _swoosh. _She blinked at him, seeing him jump in surprise when the door had opened. But he quickly recovered himself and stood straight with his shoulders straight and his chin up.

She couldn't help but smile, and she waved a hand towards her room.

"No, no, come in." she said calmly.

He blinked at her, looking around as if he wasn't sure he was supposed to or not. She shook her head at him.

"I'm not the drill sergeant, Shooter. Come on."

Sharpshooter smiled warily, and carefully stepped inside the room. But he still seemed stiff, and jumped when the door closed. She tilted her head at him curiously.

"Is everything… okay?" she asked.

He snapped his head back to her, suddenly smiling oddly and nodding.

"Uh, yes, Mrs.! Of course." He replied rather snappily.

She stared at him for a moment, studying him for a few moments. Then she crossed her arms and tilted her body so that her hips leaned.

"Okay, kid. Spill it."

He struggled for words, rubbing the back of his neck. "I am not very sure if I am allowed to be in her Mrs."

She sighed deeply. "Cut it out with that 'Mrs.' business. You can just call me Fern. And I invited you into my room. Besides, you're my guard. You are supposed to watch over me, right?"

He was quiet for a few minutes as he chewed on that bit of information. She was right. She had invited him, and also he was ordered to guard her. So he supposed that meant that he was able to enter her room when she invited him? So, as that though sank in, he sighed, and nodded at Fernblade.

"I guess you're right, Mrs. - I mean Fern." He corrected himself, shaking his head.

She smiled tiredly, and turned around and sat on her berth. He stared at her curiously.

"May I have a seat?" he asked quietly, not sure whether he was allowed to ask.

She smiled and nodded. "Go ahead."

He nodded, and gently grabbed the chair and sat it in front of the berth before siting in it. He twiddled his thumbs as they sat in silence. When he looked at her again, he noticed that she didn't look as cheerful as she did a while ago. She looked… depressed? Maybe she was just tired, but it looked as if there was something bothering her.

"Are you okay, Fern?" he asked cautiously

She lifted her head slowly, and shook her head. After a while he was about to ask what was wrong, but she spoke before he could speak again.

"I feel like they are using me…"

"Who?" he asked.

"The Elite Guard," she replied flatly.

He blinked in shock of her answer, and frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

She shook her head. He was hesitant with the action, but he gently put a hand on hers. Fernblade quickly looked up at his face, caught off guard by his motion, and was about to shove his hand away thinking that he was making a move on her. But then she saw the sincerity in his optics as they gazed warmly and calmly at her.

After a moment, she sighed. "Have you heard about me and my visions?"

He nodded, and then shook his head. "Sort of, but not completely. I still yet to understand why they want to keep you here."

She nodded in understanding, and continued. "They want me here so that I can keep having those visions and predict Decepticon activity. They are using me and my sparklings…"

Sharpshooter's optics widened at the last word. He was stunned into silence for a few seconds before he quickly shook his head to recover himself. Then he frowned.

"That is cruel. How could they do that?" he demanded softly, watching his tone carefully. The thought of the Elite Guard doing this to a femme, especially one that was expecting sparklings, enraged him. He had always been a laid back bot. But when something got to him this easily, he really had to watch his temper. He didn't want to hurt anybody, or be insulting. He had gotten it from his father, who always threw tantrums when he was angered or drunk on high grade. Sharpshooter was very lucky to even be accepted in the job he had as a guard, knowing that his father's history could have affected the Elite Guard's judgment on the young mech.

Fernblade shook her head. "I don't know."

He stood up abruptly. "Then I shall speak to them about the situation."

She snapped her head up and raised her hands. "No! Don't, Sharpshooter. That would only make things worse than they are."

Sharpshooter stood there for a moment, anger slowly running through his body. But as a minute passed, he sighed and plopped into the chair. Fernblade could feel the tension radiating off of him, and was hesitant to say anything. She felt guilty about even speaking about the subject.

But she smiled weakly at him. "Thank you…"

He lifted his head, cocking an optic at her confusingly. "For what?"

"For caring…"

He studied her for a minute. Her optics were dim, and her smile was carefully made as if not to anger him even more than he was. He could see the gratitude in her features, and his anger flushed away into calmness. He smiled back at her softly. He somehow felt more mature than when he was with others. He didn't know if it was the fact that she was a femme, or the fact that she made him learn something. Not everybody is the same. The only bots he'd been around were the ones in the Elite Guard, and that was all he'd ever known. Now with someone from Earth and with a different opinion on the world, he could see things a little differently.

A large and unexpected yawn erupted from him before he could stop it. Fernblade smiled, nodding knowingly.

"You need to go to recharge." She stated sleepily.

He nodded, and smiled at her tiredly. "Do you need me to do anything before I go?"

"No, Sharpshooter. Go to bed."

He yawned again, raising a hand to cover his mouth as he stood up. He waved at her, and shook his head.

"Goodnight, Fernblade."

She nodded back. "Goodnight, Sharpshooter."

With that he quietly left the room, leaving her in silence in her dark, but now warm room. She yawned, and leaned back on her berth. Her chest was warm and humming as the sparkling orbs rested inside her. Oh how she couldn't wait for them to be born. Maybe she was being sort of selfish for the next thought she had, but she knew that when the sparklings were born, she wouldn't have the visions anymore, and that would mean she wouldn't have to stay here. But that thought was pushed away by her conscience. The thought was wrong. It would be wrong to wish her sparklings were born just so that she could be out of here.

She was sleepier than she had thought, because before she could even make another thought, all she could see was blackness as recharge took over her.


	10. Chapter 10

**You Caught My Optics Part Two**

By

Dragon with a Shotgun

**Hey, sorry I've been a little slow. But I hope that you can forgive me… Okay, I know that Blurr died sometime during the show, but I DON'T CARE! He gonna be alive in this story! I love Blurr…he's my little Zippy… XD. Enjoy.**

**Chapter Ten**

His footsteps echoed off the walls as he slowly made his morning patrol down the halls. Not knowing what to think of, he lowered his gaze to his feet as he walked. Each foot had a white stripe down the black paint, and he could see his reflection off of them as he looked at each foot. When he looked back up again, he glanced at the wall. He found it odd that he could see his reflection so well in the wall, and stopped for a moment to observe it.

Sharpshooter stared at his bright blue optics, realizing that he never noticed how bright they were. They almost blinded him while looking at the reflection of the lights on the ceiling mixed with them. He blinked, shaking his head before choosing to continue walking again. His thoughts swirled for a while, taking him to some weeks earlier. He remembered what Fernblade had said about the Elite Guard using her to find out about the Decepticons. If that story was true, then he felt sick to even wear the Elite Guard symbol. The thought of using someone as simple as an Autobot from Earth, especially while she was expecting sparklings, to predict Decepticon activity made him feel disgusted to even live on Cybertron.

He rounded a corner in the hallway. He didn't know why he needed to patrol the halls anyhow. He had been assigned the job to patrol the halls during morning hours, but he had never gotten a specific reason to why he had. He hadn't been allowed to do much. Maybe it was because of his history? Sharpshooter had always been a troublesome sparkling when growing up. But that had been because of the way he was treated in his family. His mother was easy on him, and defended him whenever he accidently did something wrong or caused trouble. His father punished him for being an insubordinate youngling, and had whipped him good.

Lost in his thoughts, the young mech gently brushed his hand across the slight dent in his neck. He had had it ever since his younger times as a sparkling, when his father had gotten drunk on high grade. That horrific night was now a nightmare that shadowed him. He could remember everything that had happened. His father was having illusions from the high grade that he had added some kind of mix to. He had mistaken his mother for someone else, and attacked her. Sharpshooter, a very young teenager at the time, had defended her, and was beaten himself. That was how he had gotten the dent in his neck. He remembered watching his father lying on the ground with a large dent in his head from where the young mech had hit him with a pipe from the wall. He couldn't remember hitting his father, but afterwards, he felt… nothing. He felt no emotion when he saw his father on the floor, and cared more about his mother's safety.

Ever since that day, he had lived with the 'scar' on his neck that was invisible to others. It reminded him every day of what he had done, and what he was supposed to do. After his mother went offline, or died, some eon after the fight, he had sworn to never let anyone else be hurt in any way. Even mentally. Now that he had heard about the Elite Guard using Fernblade to their advantage, his anger was getting to him mentally. He needed to keep his cool, and keep low. He couldn't make the situation worse than it was. He didn't want to.

Fernblade had few visions since she had arrived, and he knew that it was because she was under too much pressure. From her personality, he knew that she couldn't work under pressure like this. He visited her often, and they usually had long conversations about their lives and histories. She was interesting, and was a femme that needed help with all of this Elite Guard stuff going on.

The young mech was so lost in his thoughts that he did not hear the sound of feet hitting the floor at high speed. He looked up just at the last millisecond. Suddenly something hit him and he was sent to the ground with a loud crash. After a moment, he felt a hand pulling at his arm quite firmly.

"Iamsosorry, 'tseeyouthere,Iamsosorry!Areyoualright?"

Sharpshooter blinked for a moment, recovering his mind and trying to figure out what had just happened. He looked up to see an older blue mech. He was thin and had a sharp pointed head. He had frantic optics as he tried to help the younger bot to his feet, tugging at his arm but tiring quickly and bending over and leaning his elbows on his knees.

Finally Sharpshooter shook his head and smiled. "Easy, Blurr, it's fine."

"Areyousure?Iwasn' !"

Sharpshooter rolled his optics, standing to his feet and brushing himself off. "Yeah, no problem. I wasn't watching where I was going too."

Blurr sighed abruptly, and nodded quickly. All of the blue bot's twitches and movements were enough to make the young black and white bot dizzy, and he sharply put his hands on Blurr's shoulders.

"Hey, calm down will ya? I said it was alright. Jeez, you're giving me a headache!"

Blurr blinked at him as slowly as he could, and nodded at the same speed as Sharpshooter's hands were still on his shoulders. "Yes…Sowhatareyoudoingatthistimeoftheday?"

The younger mech blinked for a second as he calculated what he said, and retreated his arms to his chest by folding them. "Morning patrol. I have it every morning."

Blurr nodded very quickly. "Ah, ?"

"Just a few girls walking down the hallway on their way to the workrooms, but nothing out of the ordinary." He replied flatly as he let his optics shift to the wall.

"Oh,wellI' .DoyouknowofthisFernblade?I'veheardthatsheisofgrea tusetotheEliteGaurd…"

Sharpshooter frowned, not exactly getting a word out of the blue mech's sentences. But as Burr was moving his arms in motion to his sentences were so fast that the black and white bot's optics crossed oddly in confusion. He quickly shook his head to clear his mind before blinking at Blurr, still not understanding a word.

"…Andohmy!I'msupposetogettothemaincontrolroom!"

Sharpshooter was silent for a moment as he stared at Blurr. Then he shook his head while blinking rapidly. "What?"

Blurr shook his head. "Oh,nevermind!"

Then he was gone in a blur. Sharpshooter snapped his head back and forth, not quite sure what to think of what had just happened. His mind was slow compared to Blurr's, but then again, wasn't everybody's? But after a moment of calculating what Blurr had said, he sighed, and then continued his walk, now more alert of his surroundings.

After a few minutes passed, a few femmes appeared around a corner from a doorway. As they strolled closer, they glanced at him with curious faces while they each held two tablets.

He stared back at them for a moment, and then smiled coolly. "Hey, what's up?"

They giggled, and smiled at him amusingly. "Space?"

He laughed at the silver femme that had spoken. "Oh, good one! So what's going on with you ladies?"

She blushed slightly, and looked at the other two girls. One was lime green with yellow trimming on her shoulders and face, and the other was purple with white trimming. They giggled back and grinned at him. He leaned against the wall and folded his arms over his chest.

"We're just taking these tablets to the main control room. How about you, cutie?" the lime-green one said sweetly.

He blushed a bit, cleared his throat, and smiled charmingly. "Oh, just fooling around, patrolling the halls. Not much."

They giggled in union as they whispered to each other for a moment. Then they looked back at him.

"So what's your name?" the purple femme asked.

"Sharpshooter," he replied calmly.

"Ooohh, Sharpshooter?" the silver one repeated in wonder. The other femmes smiled cutely and started to giggle nonstop. He chuckled warmly.

"And what do you fine femmes go by?" he asked in a low tone that was cool and warm.

The femmes then let out giggles and whispers. Then they turned all the way toward him.

"I'm Silverburst, and this is Nightfall, and this is Leafstrike." The silver femme said, motioning her hands toward each of the others she named. He nodded to each one with a cocked optics but with a smile paired. Each one he smiled at they smiled brightly.

"Those are some beautiful names! I'm sure that-,"

"Shooter!"

Sharpshooter jumped in surprise at Ironhide's voice that echoed loudly through the halls. He sharply turned his head to the older mech as he strolled stiffly toward the young mech an femmes. The young bot swallowed hard, and stood straight in a solute pose.

"Yes, sir?" he spoke flatly.

"What in blazes are you doing?" Ironhide asked abruptly as he looked down at the younger mech.

Sharpshooter didn't turn his head to look at him, keeping a hard expression glued to his face.

"Just having a conversation with the femmes passing by while on patrol, sir." He replied.

Ironhide grumbled, and glared at the femmes who quickly waved at Sharpshooter and hurriedly walked down the hall and around the corner. The orange mech then glared at Sharpshooter.

"Kid, when are you ever going to learn?"

Then he began to walk off, his hard footsteps echoing through the halls as he disappeared back the way he came. The black and white young bot sighed heavily, and rolled his optics. Then he again retreated to his thoughts as he began to walk again.

Then suddenly another voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Sharpshooter, Sentinel speaking. I need you in the main control rooms right away."

He sighed and answered back. "Yes, sir. Be there in a minute."

"NOW!"

Sharpshooter cringed and rubbed his audio. "Yes, sir, right away!"

He then started to jog down the hallway toward the ship's main control room. He skidded around a corner on his tires in his heels, and almost hit the wall.

_Primus, it's like everybody's going to the control room._

Sharpshooter! Are you there? Sharpshooter!"

He skidded to a squealing stop, and raised his hand to his audio.

"Fernblade? What's wrong?"

"I don't know! But I need your help. Something's happening!" Her voice came back sharp and pained.

He frowned. "Alright, hold on. I'll be there in a second."

"Alright, but hurry!"

Sharpshooter then turned back around and sprinted back the way he came toward Fernblade's area of the ship.

"Sharpshooter, when I said now, I meant NOW!" Sentinel's voice shrieked in his head. He stopped and raised both of his hands to his helm, dizzy and confused. Should he hurry to Sentinel and then see Fernblade? Or should he go see Fernblade then go see Sentinel? He would be fired if he disobeyed Sentinel, but then again Fernblade was his friend, and said she needed his help. Primus! But suddenly, his memory came to the present.

"_Help! Somebody, help!"_

_Sharpshooter sprung from the outside bench and charged into the house to see his father approaching his mother with his blade shifted out with some energon on it. Some feet away the teenager could see a glass of leftover high grade. _

_He sprinted across the room and tackled his father, sending them in a mad heap on the floor. The young mech grabbed the only thing he could reach. A long piece of pipe that his father had not put in the wall yet. He suddenly started to hit his father with the pipe, but he lost his grip and it fell on the floor a few inches away. His father screamed, and punched him in the optic. Sharpshooter cried out and fell bac, feeling his father's weight press on him. Then there was this banging, and he felt sharp, painful pressure his him in the chest and gut. Then there was this loud pop. His neck felt as if it were broken._

_But he heard his mother's cries, pleads for his father to stop. Those small and shrill sobs were enough to give him the strength to throw his father off. Everything was a haze after that. After a few minutes, his senses came back._

_All he saw was energon covering his hands. He looked around and saw his mother sitting frozen on the sofa. He shifted his optics to the floor. He saw his father, cold and offline. A large, bent pipe lied near his side. He wasn't quite sure how it happened, but the feeling of his father not being alive made his spark feel lighter. He gave his mother a relieving glance, and saw her optics dim. She looked down, and didn't say a word. He stood up, straightening and walking over to her. He knelt down next to her. His body ached, and his neck felt fractured, but he knew that it was just a dent. A very deep dent that would scar him for life._

_His mother looked up into his optics. But the only word that she was able to get out was, "Sharpshooter…"_

"Sharpshooter, where are you?! Please, hurry!" Fernblade's voice rang like his mother's in his memory. The cry echoed, and made his mind feel hollow.

He snapped his optics open, and frowned at the louder, angrier voice of Sentinel that shrieked in his head.

"Sorry, Sir, but I have something more important to take care of."

"What do you mean by that, soldier? Answer me! Sharpshooter-," He was cut off by Sharpshooter's audio.

The young mech then sprinted down the hall, raising a hand to his audio. "I'm on my way, Fernblade. Hold on!"

His energy flowed hard and fast through his veins. He felt his spark pulse faster and faster until he felt his chest tighten. His mind started racing, and then again Sentinel's voice broke in.

"Sharpshooter, if you don't get over here, you're going to find yourself in a black hole of trouble!"

Sharpshooter, getting annoyed and his anger rising, couldn't help but snap. "Will all do respect, sir, SHUT UP!"

There was a silence on the other side of the com-link for a long moment and all he could hear was his feet hitting the floor as he still ran through the halls.

"What…did you just say to me?" Sentinel's voice rose at the other end, full of tension and anger.

"You heard me." Sharpshooter replied. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to what is most important."

He then cut the com-link off. He didn't want any more distractions, and he wasn't going to get any. Like he had thought all his life, another's life was more important than a stupid meeting. He skidded to a screeching halt when he came to Fernblade's door, and pushed in the code before he stepped inside. There was a shrill screech, and it pierced his audio and made him cringe. But he looked to the berth and saw her leaning against it on the floor.

She was breathing hard, clutching her chest with cat-like fingers and gasping for breath. She had her optics closed tightly, and her jaw clenched so that it was grinding her upper jaw. He quickly ran to her side, and was hesitant of what to do.

"Fernblade, what is wrong?" he asked frantically.

She clawed at her chest. "It's time! It's time!"

His optics widened, and he tittered. It's time? Her sparklings? Right NOW? How could it be right now? Why was it so soon? She was still a month or so away! He hesitated, and fumbled with his hand to reach for his audio.

"Alert, alert! I need a medic in the east guest room immediately! And I mean IMMEDIATELY!"

He waited for an agony filled second before a reply came.

"The medics should be there in a minute. What is the situation?"

He gulped. "I have a femme who is expecting sparklings that is possibly going into labor. She is having hard time breathing, hurry!"

He cut the com-link off, and worriedly watched as she cried out, arching her back. He saw some kind of blue glow on her chest that shined through her armor. He knew it was time, and was now quite scared. He gently took her hand. She clutched it firmly, and it almost felt like claws digging into his hand. But he tensed and ignored it.

"Okay," he said with a sharp sigh. "Just take deep breathes, okay? Just breathe."

She nodded, letting out another pained shriek. Then she started panting, and he grew very worried. Then three medics suddenly came in through the still opened door. They rushed to Fernblade and Sharpshooter's side, and began speaking to one and another about the situation.

"Go get the protoforms!" The silver mech spoke to the blue femme. She nodded and rushed out of the door. Feeling like he was in the way, Sharpshooter stood up shakily and slowly and dizzily walked out of the room. Once out of the room, he was suddenly jerked out of the doorway and slapped into the wall.

"Soldier, who do you think you are to tell me to shut up, and not even to my face?!"

He glared at Sentinel Prime as he held him up against the wall. "I felt that she needed me more than you did. And she did!"

"What do you mean by that?" the Prime demanded coldly.

Sharpshooter growled back. "She's in labor! Can't you hear her? For Primus' sake!"

The Prime suddenly went pale, and he dropped the coughing young mech onto the ground. Sharpshooter glared up at him from the ground, and stood back up.

"Now what did you need that was so important, sir?" he asked with a hard tone.

Sentinel looked like he was about to blow steam, and the younger bot considered rephrasing his tone. But before he could speak, the Prime shoved him down the hall.

"Well, get going! We need to tell Ultra Magnus about this!" His voice rang as Sharpshooter found him being pushed into running down the hall toward the contact room. He then found his feet under him and started running. Ironhide then appeared beside him from the control room.

"I heard about it and came running. Is Fernblade alright?"

"I think so," Sharpshooter said as they rounded a corner and entered the room. Sentinel ran to the computer, almost tripping over a stool. Then he recovered and contacted the main counsel. After a moment, Ultra Magnus's face appeared.

"Sir, Fernblade is going to have the sparklings sooner than expected." Sentinel said hurriedly.

Ultra Magnus nodded. "I have heard. I will contact the team on Earth, and I will let them know that after we know for certain that she will not have any visions after this, and then she can go home."

Sharpshooter sighed in relief. He was glad that she would be able to go home after all of this, but also dreaded it. Fernblade was a nice femme to talk to. She knew solutions for problems and was a good friend. He'd hate to see her go, but also was grateful that she wouldn't have to be cooped up here being used like a weapon.

Now, the only thing to handle was giving Optimus Prime and his team an apology. He owed them one for not knowing about all of this in the first place about her being used. But the thing that would be priceless, would be the look on Optimus's face when he sees his sparklings for the first time.

**Okay, I did change the title, in case you noticed and were confused. I thought it might make it sound a little more intriguing... XD. Well, yes! The sparklings are coming! :) The next part is coming up next! Its called You Caught My Optics: Family. Thanks!**


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